Double Knitting

This evening's form of fibery entertainment: learning how to double knit!  Thanks to trusty YouTube and the calm reassuring voice of LiatMGat and her set of three lessons (this will take you to the first one) I'm well on my way. What fun!  Here are pics...the first I've posted using the webcam on my laptop, btw.

...and no, my hair isn't dyed turquoise like my daughter's.  It's just the "full spectrum" light bulb effect on auburn hair.  It's not bad tho'...can't say I might not try it someday.

It's still January, barely

I've decided that refraining from "catching up" since the last entry is more conducive to actually posting since the backlog can seem overwhelming.  So onward and forward!

So far this new year is shaping up to be a year of launchings.  My oldest son will be launching into living on his own come 4/1.  I'm launching into a new, semi-secret, year long, personal de-stuckification adventure on Feb. 29 (Leap!).  Finally, I've recently begun the long (for me) pre-launch process for my own website with Wendy Cholbi's Website Wish Kit, which brings me to today's pic.  One step in the WWK workbook is coming up with a Venn diagram representing what you wish for in a website, what the reality is, and where they overlap, if at all. Oo oo oo...a chance to play with art in the processing!  So here's the result:

Still getting used to the new camera so the lighting isn't quite what I wanted it to be.  Didn't realize until after I'd finished that I used a mirror image of the Mastercard logo (what does it mean?)

Not surprisingly, it's rather representative of my life in general as well as my website-to-be.

summer...?

Wow...it's September, the kids are back in school, and it's raining (again).  Think we're channeling Pacific Northwest weather in Jersey this summer, punctuated by an earthquake and hurricane Irene.

My big event of the summer was a trip to Prince Edward Island, Canada (of Anne of Green Gables fame)...thanks Dad & Linda!  This place has my ideal climate, I've decided: never gets much over 80F in the summers & lots of cool sweater weather - a must for knitters.  AND there is Belfast Mini Mills, a fiber lover's heaven on earth, not to mention wonderful people, beautiful yarns and spinning fiber (including quiviut), a tea room, fascinating fiber processing equipment, classes...yes, I'm completely enamoured!  You will get to read more about it later when our travelogue is posted but I'll try to get some pics up sooner.

Long time no see

Started a part-time job in May so, needless to say, I've had less time to knit, spin, or dye, much less post about it. But now I do have all my windows and doors framed in the kitchen and den, and baseboard, and crown moulding. Yay!  Closure! (BTW, this kitchen remodel was started over 3 yrs ago!)  This was, after all, the whole point of getting the job.

But my fingers have not been idle:

This little baby shrug for a friend's soon-to-arrive baby girl was a surprisingly quick knit and I love the shaping and crochet border. Check out DROPS Design # 0-683 if you're interested.

Judith MacKenzie's article "Paper Chase" in Spin-Off, Spring 2011 inspired me to try my hand at spinning paper.  I used sewing pattern paper as she suggested in the article and plied it with Lion Brand Collection Wool Stainless Steel.  It knits up so much softer than you would think!  Definitely need to find this type of paper by the roll...all the joining breaks up your rhythm.  Still, I think it ain't half bad for a first try.

Going public...a not so wee step

It's a little scary to me but this blog is now searchable.  People can find it.  People who will be interested, love it, hate it, think it's silly, laugh, sneer, snicker, spew coffee on their keyboards... But the people who will stay are the ones I'm really writing to, sharing with.  So here it is folks!

I also now have a little (smallest they had) banner ad.  It's the purple one over there on the right that says "Paradise Fibers".  They have an affiliate program so if you link to and order from their site through this blog I get a little something in return.  It took much perusing of Blogger Q&A's to figure it out but I'm pretty sure I won't get nabbed by the Spam Eradicator Robot for this l'il purple button.  Not many of the fiber resource retailers I might recommend here have affiliate programs so I don't think I'm in much danger of overrunning the blog with banner ads, but if you happen to find "Wee Steps" today and it's gone tomorrow, you'll know who got me!

a web presence

A mere generation ago this phrase might have evoked images of spiders, at least for anyone besides techno-geeks, but I have one now and I am neither arachnoid or technoid.  Not designed or published yet it hangs there in cyberspace, my little corner of webdom.  Shep at GoDaddy (if that's his real name) was very patient with a newbie like me, so tonight I get to play around designing my Home Page.  Progress.  A step.  And no ellipses, either.

Don't cry over spilt...latte?

OK, I didn't cry.  But when my dear STP accidentally spilled my freshly made Autunno latte yesterday a.m., I just couldn't bring myself to use a paper towel, or any towel for that matter, lest you think my hesitation came from the greener side of my conscience.  I ran to the kitchen and grabbed...a straw of course!  Yes, even at (by then) room temperature and spread unceremoniously across a toddler's tray table (crumbs & all) it's still my 2nd favorite espresso ever!  A completely undignified but satisfying solution. Totally green, too.

BTW, my all-time fave espresso is Primavera, also from OQCoffee, but it is currently out of season.