I've started thinking a little more about the chicken coop we're going to be building soon. backyardchickens.com has some great inspiration, and forums with people that will answer all your questions. I need to get my hands back on some chicken library books again, and start drawing up something a little more concrete than pointing at the screen and saying, "Take this part of this coop, and this part of that coop and mix them together!" And I'm working on chicken names - like Noodle and Nugget and Kung Pao and Potpie and Sesame. Just because it makes me smile.

And I've got the first FO of the year done! Well, okay, it's just the first half of a FO. And the ends aren't woven in yet. But it's a fingerless mitt, and I designed it myself! Hopefully I jotted down the pattern well enough, and the second one will match the first. I did a lot of the work on the mitt at Sticks and Stitches - which was a good time. Would have been a little better if the game was interesting, but you can't have everything.

That time, again.

It's time again to be introspective, to analyze what just happened and send out good hopes for what's to come.

Re-reading last years resolutions wasn't very illuminating. I wanted to have a place to call my own; we managed to accomplish that. I wanted to knit something of consequence and I believe that I have. I wanted to get a business plan written, but it seems that we're skipping that step (for the moment) and just jumping in. All in all, a good year.

For this year, there's only one things I'm determined to accomplish - I'd like to relearn how to connect with people.

I've never been good with people; I've never been quick to make friends. I've spent the last two and a half years learning how to survive. First how to accept a world that was merely a poor imitation of what I'd always known; second, how to carve out my own place in the world. I've been so focused on developing myself and my place, I haven't had anything left over for anyone else. I'm ready for that to change.

I'm going to try to reconnect with the friends I used to have. I'm going to try to find a knitting group I actually enjoy. We're going to hike this winter, and maybe meet some people who want to keep going come spring. Barring that, we'll find another group to hike with then. I want to be able to plan a dinner party, and have people to invite that will actually want to show up.

We finally finished most of the painting in the living room - I say mostly because there are still some corner touch ups to do.. Plaster walls don't have definite corners, and the previous painters and I don't seem to agree on where the corner really is... :) And we've figured out how to have the furniture, so that's really nice. Except we just moved it all around for the baby shower last weekend, and it still isn't all back where it belongs. That's okay - that's what this weekend is for.

I got a lovely package from my Flat Rate Box swap partner - two! books, two skeins of Silky Wool (which I love, absolutely) in a beautiful dark green color, which is going to make a lovely cowl, a package of Bob's GF corn bread mix (which I plan to use making sweet potato corn bread - I love fall!) and some lovely decorations - fall bowls (which are going to be perfect around the house, in the craft room, candy dish, etc) and a rooster canister which really made me smile, and bid ole' bag of candy corn that I immediately devoured. There was a rooster note pad, and rooster recipe cards - which makes me laugh, because they're kitchen items and R won't let me buy roosters for the kitchen, even though I usually want to. :) It was a delightful box!

Next weekend we leave for a week in Baltimore. I'm excited - we're going to the aquarium! And maybe the B&O railroad museum. And probably back to Spinster Yarn and Fibers, for a jaunt at the batt station again!

I haven't spun since the weekend with the alpacas - I haven't gotten the chair set up again yet. But I will this weekend - I'd like to get the purple BFL all finished up soon. :)

The spinning at the alpaca farm went well! I had a good time, met some new people, and got a lot of good laughs at little kids. I'm reasonably sure that one lady in particular is going to purchase a wheel sometime soon - she was enamored with the Kiwi. And Jana (one the owners) asked if I'd be interested in teaching a class - which really makes me laugh - so that she, and another lady we met at the farm, can learn to spin. Ha! Looks like it's time to get lots of books out of the library... :)

It was a nice, relaxing weekend. We don't actually have anything planned for this weekend, so perhaps we'll be able to get the paint out and work on that some.. And I'm going to make candy corn! I'm a candy corn junkie, so that's really way super exciting!

What a week last week, what a weekend, and what an inauspicious start to this week.. Goodness.

Summer was busy. (And, according to the overcast sky, it's over now.) I was hoping that when fall came, things would slow down a bit. Turns out, that's not true. Between family emergencies, new babies, etc.. Things are looking to be just as hectic as the last three months. (Well, without the stress of moving and mortgages.)

Work is nuts. The "construction economy" is a bit behind the regular economy, so we're just hitting the full effect of this recession. So we're working overtime on crappy jobs we wouldn't have given a second thought to a year ago. Lots of little projects, lots and lots of little projects...

I've been spinning a lot lately - I haven't had the focus required to knit. So after I found the wheel, it's lived in the living room in front of my spinning chair. I finished my first yarn - it's lime green, neon orange, grays, purples, and whites. It's really bright. And it's between 650 - 700 yards of mostly lace weight. The balance is better than I was expecting, and I still haven't washed & wacked yet. It will make a lovely something. :)

I started my second set of top - an 8 oz bag of BFL I picked up at the Merc. When I wasn't spinning, I sent out all my fluff on swaps and didn't get much to replace it, so I had to get me something colorful. I'm working on making this a little heavier - it might end up about a light worsted weight when it's finished. And, of course, it will be beautiful too.

I'm giving a spinning demonstration this weekend at Gentle Meadows Alpaca farm for Alpaca Farm Days! Hopefully lots of people will show up, and no one will be able to tell that I barely know what I'm doing!!

We're all moved in now! Well, mostly, you know. We finished getting most of my stuff from my Dad's house yesterday. Now all we've got to do is finish painting, and unpacking.

Both of which I've successfully avoided by focusing on my spinning! Saturday I finally finished the singles I was working on - it's all way skinny stuff, and bright bright colors. And now I'm plying - which I've never done on the wheel, because this is the first project I've finished! It's all so soft and squishy looking - and all the really bright colors (the lime and florescent orange) are lining up with the white and gray, so it's quite pretty. It'll be a heavier lace weight when it's all said and done...

I ordered more bobbins last week, and it's a good thing - I'll need them next weekend! I bought some alpaca fleece from Gentle Meadows Alpaca Farm last spring. One of the owners called last night and invited me to give spinning demonstrations at their farm during National Alpaca Farm Days! Which does really make me laugh - I've been spinning for less than a year, I'm just now finishing my second project ever, and I haven't taught anything since I was a kid! We'll see how it goes. It'll be fine - hopefully I'll be able to answer most of the questions!

Moving!

We're moving! We closed on Friday, and we get to move today! We stopped by the house twice on Friday, and another three times on Saturday - moving a few little things here and there, changing the locks, getting the new patio furniture into the garage. All the yarn is moved, the spinning wheel, and a few boxes of kitchen and closet. Today we're doing all the big stuff - furniture, beds, the rest of the boxes. We'll finish all the piddly things later this week.

I've got a to-do list a mile long (well, okay, it's not that bad) and it's mostly finished... Then I'm going to start loading Dad's truck and get some more boxes into the house...

It still amuses me that as a reward for spending 6 weeks in a nervous anticipatory stressful hell, you get to box up all your stuff and then try to find it all again later. Ha!!