Almost finished!

May baby sweater 062510
Originally uploaded by mzundercover

How's this for making progress? The baby sweater for a coworker is almost finished. Good thing, too, since she is due back from maternity leave soon ... maybe next week sometime? In any case, I'm on vacation starting on Thursday so my hope is to finish the second sleeve, attach the buttons, wash and block it so that I can leave it for her before Thursday.

Soooooo, with that, off I go to find a cool spot for knitting. It's hot as hell outside and inside so I will be near a fan for sure. I'll post another pic as soon as the knitting is finished, which will hopefully be sometime this evening.

Bye for now,
~mz

Nobody beats the GIZ!!

(Remember Nobody Beats the Biz by Biz Markie?)

GOOD NEWS!!

Gizmo checked out just fine at the vet this afternoon; aside from a tick on his right ear everything was great! No ear mites or anything, his heart rate and temperature were all normal. Yay ... that means we get to keep him!! I'm so happy I could just pee (my parents used to have a cocker spaniel puppy who peed every time he got excited about something haha). He was SUCH a good boy during the whole examination and getting his shots, too. So now that makes 4 kitties here at home (3 boys, 1 girl) and I think we have reached our kitty threshold! He's going back to the vet in 2 weeks to get neutered and two weeks after that for booster shots etc.

So that's all the good news from here. I wish I could close out with a picture of the little guy but he's somewhere sleeping and I'd love to get a photo that shows off his eyes and cute little face. Maybe next time? And I'll be back soon with more of my haul from the Great Lakes Fiber Show, promise!

~mz

Edited to add ... a PICTURE!!!

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Originally uploaded by mzundercover

WWKIP day/week

Yesterday I was so excited to meet up with my friends jcoop and knitonepurltoo for a little knitting in public at The Slow Train Cafe.  Slow Train is a new coffeehouse/cafe type of place that I think will quickly gain in popularity.  When I got there yesterday the place was jam-packed with people watching World Cup soccer (England v. USA) but luckily my friends had already secured a table ... whew!  We sat there for a few hours, happily chatting and knitting away on our socks.  jcoop was knitting a pattern from WendyKnits (I don't remember which one, though), knitonepurltoo was knitting Leyburn socks and I was knitting Treads (<-- Rav link!).  What a great way to spend a weekend afternoon, just hanging out with friends!  I hope there will be more of this fun and fellowship over the summer months.  Maybe I could stand a chance of actually FINISHING something if I have nice long blocks of knitting time?

Right now, though, it's time for breakfast.  I think the Mr. is in the kitchen chefing something up ... yum!  I am also going to nuzzle with the new kitty (who's going to the vet tomorrow).  That little guy totally has me wrapped around his little paw!

~mz

Hello, kitty!

This little guy (and yes, we know for sure he's male!) found us last night and he is probably a keeper, so long as he checks out okay at the vet. He's just so sweet and loveable and he kinda made himself at home last night.  Spent lots of time nuzzling with me, made his way right to the food bowl and even got cozy on the couch for a moment.  We decided to keep him sequestered from the other cats last night (well, once we got them all inside, which wasn't until around 2am -yawn!-) and this guy spent the night in the basement.  But boy, this morning as I was leaving for work, he spent about 15 minutes saying, "Good Meow-ning!" :-)

Edited to add:  I am thinking of names for this little cutie (even though my fella says I'm thinking too hard and that the right name will come when it's time).  But just in case it doesn't ... do y'all have any ideas?
~mz

Blew it on NaBloPoMo

So I missed posting for Thursday because we have apparently been adopted by a new kitty who found his way to our house.  What a sweetheart he is!  We were discussing what we should do (keep him? if so, let him inside for the night?  if so, where to keep him until we can get him to the vet tomorrow?).  That conversation took more than a few minutes!  Meantime, the other cats were all wary of the new guy (who's a black cat that reminds me a bit of Bordhi from French Creek Fiber Arts (sorry, there's no pic of him there).  Anyway, I tried to get a good pic of the new guy but he was too busy burying his face in the food bowl and nuzzling up to me to be bothered to pose for a photo!  The biggest personality conflict is between Tiger and the as yet unnamed new kitty.  At one point they were both out on the back deck and we couldn't manage to get Tiger inside (she really doesn't like the 2 other cats that live here too, let alone this little newcomer -- who's still intact!) so decided to leave them alone for a while and try to get her inside later.  Well, a few minutes later I went back out to check on them and they're both gone!  So I dunno where they are if they're busy mating (even though she's been fixed) or tearing each other to shreds (although I didn't hear any indication of either scenario).  What I know is that it's after 1am and I'm tired as all hell but it feels weird trying to sleep with only 2/3 of our kitties inside.

In any case, I will keep trying to post every day this month, even though I blew it.  At least I made it for a few more days than the last time I tried to do this in November 2009.  Gonna go try to find my cat so I can finally go to bed.

~mz

feeling better ... and worse

So I've had what I think is strep throat since Monday.  Right now I'm feeling a LOT better (no headache to speak of, throat hurts way less and fever finally broke) but now I'm nauseous as all hell.  What gives!  Methinks it will be a super early night tonight (might go to bed before it's even dark outside!), and I hope to be back tomorrow with a more substantive post.

~mz

Yay turnips!

060810
Originally uploaded by mzundercover

This is the first turnip harvest of the season ... how cool is THAT? My honey works so hard in the garden every day so that we can have good, organic, nutritious food. Just think about how much money we can save all summer just by growing our own. This is totally awesome. I love him SO MUCH for all that he does for us!

~mz

Short post today ...

060610b
Originally uploaded by mzundercover

... because I am sick to DEATH with what appears to be strep throat so I'm gonna take myself to bed. But in the meantime, I wanted to leave you with a picture of the funnel cloud that I took last night from my front porch (this was after snapping the pic of the beautiful rainbow!). Yes I know I should have had my ass in the basement but I just couldn't help myself. Luckily there was no rotation and it blew over in just a few minutes.

Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow and post more of my Great Lakes Fiber Show goodies.

Until then,

~mz

Somewhere over the rainbow

060610
Originally uploaded by mzundercover

I love rainbows. Maybe because they don't happen often, maybe because they're so pretty, maybe because they remind me of the Noah's ark story in the Bible ... maybe because of all of the above. But earlier this evening I looked out of my back door and this is what I saw. Isn't it amazing?

Training for Tour de Fleece!

Have you all heard of Star Athena's Tour de Fleece?  It's an online spin-along that happens at the same time as the Tour de France.  "The concept is simple, They spin, we spin. A real spinning themed spin-along."  Sounds so cool, right?


So I decided yesterday that I need to "train" for this event.  I so wish I had a Majacraft Suzie Pro that could be properly "christened" for this event but I don't so I will be using a drop spindle.  I finally broke out my new Louet  top whorl spindle that I bought last year during the Yarn Discovery Tour.  It's SO much better than the student spindle I'd been using.  Anyway, I started training last night and as of this afternoon I have this: 

I am using some Punta wool from Highland Handmades.  I just found out that Punta is a region in South America, not a type of sheep!  Anyway, this colorway is called "Harbinger" and I love it!  It's shades of red with a wee bit of purple and a teensy bit of palest pink.  Isn't it spinning up nicely?

I read a blog post from Girl Meets Needle today and she was talking about pre-drafting some yarn that she's spinning for a shawl and I'm like oooooooh.  So I did some pre-drafting but then I couldn't wait to spin.  It's still a little lumpy, and the spots where I'm joining new fiber are a little awkward but it looks like yarn doesn't it!  This is a refreshing change from spinning plain undyed fiber.  I thought maybe I should save the pretty dyed stuff until I get more skilled at spinning but nevermind that foolishness!  I've no clue what this lovely stuff will become once it's all spun up.  Maybe a cowl or a hat or ... ?


So maybe I'll go pre-draft some more, or knit for a while.  Either way I will be dreaming of the day when I have a spinning wheel of my very OWN!


~mz

Day 1 of my of my "bike to work every day and get ur ass in shape" exercise routine

Hell yeah!  And I did it in less time than I planned for ... YAY!  I need to find a better backpack that will accommodate a change of clothes and shoes but whatever, I did it!

Now back to my regularly scheduled work day.  Talk to ya later!

~mz

Guess what I did today!

I rode 15 miles on my bike.  That's almost all the way to work and back.  The only reason I didn't go all the way to campus is that the sun was setting and I wanted to get home before dark (I'm kind of a wimp).  I'm pretty sure that starting tomorrow I'm going to bike to work daily (or mostly daily).  I won't ride in the rain because -- like I said -- I'm kind of a wimp.

My backpack is all packed with my usual daily essentials -- wallet, keys, work ID, makeup bag, iPod, cell phone and knitting (not like I can knit and ride but knitting goes with me everywhere -- it's kind of like my security blanket!).  The only other detail that I haven't quite worked out yet is work clothes.  I certainly don't want to bike in them, and as of now, at least, I don't have a change of fresh work clothes at my office. I think I will just toss some clothes in the backpack and leave it at that.  I can refine this whole process as needed over time, yes?

I would show you my next batch of goodies from the fiber show but I just can't get a good photo so I'll try again tomorrow when there's some (hopefully) good natural light so that I can capture truer colors.

Right now, however, I must get ready for bed ... and get ready for tomorrow.  Until then ...

~mz

Great Lakes Fiber Show: haul #2

So this is the second beautiful thing I got from the Great Lakes Fiber Show:

These are hand-poured pewter buttons from The Ram's Horn (but incidentally, I don't see these buttons listed on the site!).  I saw them and HAD to have them.  I think they will be perfect on a hand knit sweater ... haven't decided which sweater pattern yet (and you can see from my last post that I already have quite a few things on the needles already.  But I have a potential yarn picked out for said sweater ... just have to knit a swatch and see how the buttons will look with it.  These are really special buttons, though, so the yarn and the pattern have to be special too!  As you can see, I have 8 of these buttons ... plenty for one sweater or maybe even 2 (for cardigans that only button part of the way, for example).  Either way, I'm supremely happy with this find, and can't wait to get to the point where I can actually PUT them on something.  Though, I must admit that just looking at them is mighty satisfying, too.

~mz

Great Lakes Fiber Show haul #1

So I thought I would start off NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month) with a series of posts about the wooly goodness that came home with me from the Great Lakes Fiber Show on Saturday.  Nevermind that June's theme is NOW -- I'm a procrastinator anyway so maybe I'll get around to NOW sometime later :-)

Anyhoo, this lovely sock yarn is from Creatively Dyed Yarn.

The yarn is called Sami, but unfortunately I don't know the colorway because it's not labeled.  But lemme tell ya, it's beautiful.  Kind of beet red/purple, which I don't have any of in my wardrobe anywhere but it doesn't really matter (sorry I can't get a better picture ... the sun's gone down so there's no natural light).  It will make some lovely socks.  Not NOW because I have a bunch of other WIPs that I need to finish up. Including ...

• Eric's socks.  Currently knitting down the foot of sock #2.
• May baby sweater.  All that's left is to finish up the body and knit the sleeves.
• XOXO scarf for Nyketa.  Maybe if I get my act together I can finish by the end of June.  Especially since she asked for it for Christmas 2009!
• Clapotis.  Beautiful, pink Clapotis knitted in lace-weight Malabrigo.  On size 0 or 1.  Something *really* small.  So yeah, it is pretty much taking forever.  Well, that and the fact that I haven't knitted on it since like, November maybe?  Yeah.
• Top-down pullover for me.  Body's all finished, gotta knit sleeves.  Easy mindless knit, but it's 100% worsted weight wool and it's been in the 80s here lately.  This might go into hibernation until after summer.  But then again, if I just finish it, it will be ready to wear come Autumn/Winter when I'll really need it.
• Thrummed mittens.  I started these just as spring was approaching then it got too warm for thrummed mittens so I put them aside.  Will pick them up in Autumn for sure, and then knit a pair for my Momma.  She lives in the desert southwest so why she wants some wool thrummed mittens is beyond me but I will knit them because she asked!  Better yet, maybe I'll knit some for her next month while I'm visiting.  It'll be a good reason to go to a yarn shop for some Noro Kureyon and roving!

Okay NOW, I'm gonna wrap up this post and get ready for bed.  Unfortunately, my bike isn't ready for me to start biking to work.  I was really looking forward to being able to do that, but I will also enjoy a little extra sleep in the morning.  And the quicker I get to bed, the more sleep I'll get.  Boy do I like that arrangement.  

Ciao for now, talk to you again tomorrow.

~mz