Finally!

Holy crap they're over and I've just now gathered up my strength to collect all the things that have happened recently into a cohesive post. Sigh. I'm thinking short on words and long on pictures will be the best route, so here we go. 

1) I sent my HPSS3 package! And only 5 weeks late. Go me. 

Cressida, I hope you like it! :D 

2) I opened my HPSS3 package. The blasted thing has a been taunting me for a month (see #1), and it's fabulous. I adore everything in the box. Thank you, Auntie Enid! 

3) I also got a package from Lady O, who is awesome.  I sent her some grey 4-ply soft that I bought to make Slytherin socks and never used, and in return she sent me this: 

Handpainted sock yarn, 100g

Handpainted tussah silk, 25g

Someone got the better end of this deal, and I'm not ashamed to say it was ME! Thanks, darlin'!

4) I finished the merino/soysilk from A Girl on the Rocks:

450 yds. 2-ply, fingering weight

Oh yes, it's shiny. It's been living next to my computer so I can love on it all  the time. It's put me over into Mile 4 of the 12-Mile Quest, so I'm nearly 1/2 way there! And the entire summer is stretching in front of me, so I have high hopes. Spinning-wise, I've moved on to the Easter Egg colorway in the same fiber (no pictures yet) for Jasmin 2008. Since she gave me the 2 bumps (the fiber wasn't really her thing, but I like it so I win), she's requested the one I'm currently working on for herself. She may have to wrestle me for it - if so, I'll sell tickets. There might be Jell-o. 

However, it's been hard for me to keep working on said Easter Egg roving because this has showed up: 

That would be TWENTY-SIX 8.5 oz. bumps of roving from Crown Mountain Farms, plus 2 pounds of undyed SW merino roving (in the paper packages). Between that and the Black Bunny Fiber Club 2, I'd say I spent my stimulus check appropriately, wouldn't you? And since it's not money that I was expecting, it doesn't count towards "spending," either. At least, that's what I'm telling myself. 

In celebration of the fact that I might have just achieved SABLE, I've decided not to buy anything until at least the Wool Auction on August 17. I figure I have plenty of yarn/roving to keep me busy until then, so I'm stealing a page from Crazy Aunt Purl's book and will write down everything I desperately want between now and then, and revisit the list come August. I already have a salad spinner, but we'll see what I come up with. And pay off.

Nothing Else to Say

Really, Senator? 

P.S. - an update is coming. Finals are over and I'm trying desperately to create clean clothes. This is a long weekend and my brother is in town, but I swear that I have pictures and mail and moderately interesting things to share. Just as soon as I sober up and get a full night's sleep. And level to 70.

Special of the Day

It's officially Finals Season. I took my first test yesterday, and this morning I woke up crying.

Now, this is not a plea for sympathy. Far from it - during Finals Season, tears are the order du jour, as they say in Frenchish. The Season also comes with it's own brand of snark from me and usually an examination of everything that's WRONG! in my life. Suffice to say, ManCandy is trying hard to simply stay out of my way while simultaneously hovering because he likes to fix things. Poor dear.

Here is what is coming up in the next 10 days:

Tests: 4
Papers: 4.66, repeating, numbering roughly 30 in page number.

Plus, everything in my house is filthy (see above, re. WRONG!). The laundry has gone straight into Piled Up, the floors are covered in the detritus of the ongoing Kitty Wars, my bathroom is probably a HazMat zone and I had to clear space on my desk this morning for a cup of life-giving coffee - but I don't really have time to do laundry, vacuum or scrub until the papers are written and the tests are taken. Ugh, ugh, and double ugh. Don't even mention knitting or spinning - Finals Season makes martyrs of us all.

In fact, I shouldn't even be here whining. Hans Holbein has paintings that need to be discussed, and the specter of 12 pages on the experiences of 2 groups of American women in 3 different eras is beginning to haunt my waking nightmares as well as my sleeping ones. And I have 14 minutes before I have to leave for the train.

Contest! (But not mine)

One Scheme of Happiness is having a book contest! You should go enter, and tell her I sent you. 

That's It, I Swear!

It's time. On Tuesday, I sent my resume to a local nanny agency after Bella's dad cut my hours again. He's so excited lately to have re-discovered how much he loves being a father, which I think is utterly wonderful, and I wish him the best of luck, but with summer coming on, 15 hours/week won't cut it. Especially if I want to do things like pay rent and pay off my car, not to mention going to SOAR or really anywhere ever. Yesterday I met with the nanny agency and the lovely lady there said she would begin sending my resume to families in her database, so I might hear something back as early as Monday.

I'm trying to get over my feelings of guilt about leaving Bella. We were just beginning to get used to each other and pound out a rough set of guidelines, and the drama was cooling down considerably (despite the occasional Bella Family Crazy Dance(TM)). I feel like a strange mix of mercenary and Mary Poppins - leaving because the money will be better elsewhere, and leaving because the family is beginning to heal. However, another position would probably suit me better and cause less stress in my life, not to mention that with gas at $4/gallon here, driving ~50 miles every day is getting damned expensive!

Anyway, here's some pretty fiber!

Crazy Monkey:

4 oz. SW Merino in White Peaches

4 oz. merino/soysilk in Golden Summer
(These two are destined to be plied together and maybe form a Bee Fields Shawl)

Dragonfibers:

4 oz. BFL in Blackberry Truffle

4 oz. BFL in Rosehip

4 oz. BFL in Innocent
(The Rosehip and Innocent will also intertwine their as-yet-undetermined destinies)

I haven't bought anything since last week's fall from grace at the Fiber Festival; everything listed above was ordered before hand. You see, May is one of my 3-paycheck months, so I splurged in April (hey, any reason is better than none!). Yesterday I spent most of the day with Jasmin and Chloe just hanging out and watching Auntie Mame. Better Than Yarn tried out this fiber and wasn't feelin' it, so I became the beneficiary of Jasmin 2008's "Less is More" philosophy:

4.1 oz. merino/soysilk in Easter Egg from A Girl on the Rocks

~4 oz. merino/soysilk in Mystery Colorway from A Girl on the Rocks


(I like it!)

But before I began that new project, I finished one. See how I'm getting better?

233 yds. 3-ply, SW Merino in Buffalo Soldier from Crown Mountain Farms

I'm quite proud of this spinning. It's the first 3-ply I've done that I could call a true sport/light worsted, which means that I could actually make a pair of socks out of this and have enough to graft the toes together. But maybe I'll do them toe-up just in case. It also puts me within spitting distance of completing Mile 3 of the 12-Mile Quest.

I haven't had many knitting finishes lately, so the yardage isn't adding up very quickly, but there are several things on the needles that are nearing completion. I've definitely been in more of a spinning place than a knitting place; the Tangled Yoke is still in the Time Out Corner, and the Stutter Regia and Wussy Wolverine socks are on hold as Public Knitting until the Juno Regina wedding shawl I'm working on is finished (June 13 deadline). Maybe things will pick up in the knitting department soon, but I think it'll be after the shawl is delivered and the two pairs of Stutter Socks are done. Deadline knitting is kind of the anathema of multiple-project progress.

I'm off to write papers - or maybe play video games. Here's a kitty.