In theory, it’s all about the fiber – knitting, crocheting, sewing, and spinning – but really, it’s all about my life.
I’ve spun at least a little every day since Saturday, and I’ve got my first bobbin full of the green merino-silk.
And, um, still a basketfull left to go. 
I played with it a little, and if I don’t end up with three bobbins to ply, I’m going to Navajo-ply it, because it’s really nice as a three-ply.
Not that most of you knew he was gone…
At MD Sheep and Wool this year, I asked the amazingly awesome Dave over at the Merlin Tree about converting my HitchHiker wheel to his new double-treadle design. On Sunday (of the festival – not this past Sunday), I dropped Zaphod off with Dave, and last Tuesday, he came home!
Those of you familiar with the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy will get the additional level of humor in Zaphod being sent for surgery to add an extra limb…
I’m spinning some lovely green merino-silk fiber that the fabulous, awesome, gorgeous etcgirl sent me ages ago in an SP round over on the Knittyboards. It’s spinning like a dream. And REALLY thin – have to decide if this is gonna be a three-ply. I’m still amazed at people who can plan that BEFORE they start spinning. Plus, hubby’s off playing AirSoft with his buddies again tonight, so I can watch all the cheesy girlie movies I want. First up was “Mamma Mia”, now to decide what’s on next…
Oh, and in other spinning news, there’s a new addict around. (And I’ll do a full recap of the whole adventure soon, but you can also see what CBear and her bunny pal had to say about it.) I still can’t believe she spun THAT evenly on her VERY FIRST ATTEMPT. Heaven knows what she’s going to produce when she gets more practice under her belt. Or even perhaps a wheel. >:D
Why shocking? Well, because for the first time in three and a half years, it is entirely one color. That’s right, the streaks are gone. As I’ve let my hair grow, they’ve gotten harder for me to maintain on my own (well, without making my bathroom look like an abattoir), so I decided it was time.
You might also notice a slight texture difference. In the last couple of years, my hair has gone from stick-straight (which it was my entire childhood) to wavy. It’s been getting a little curlier, so I decided to play. Since Friday, I’ve been using some of the Curly Girl methods (following in the footsteps of my darling friends Cristi and Rosi, who have some of the awesomest curls I’ve ever seen), and what you see here is the result of that. We’ve moved beyond waves, and those are some honest-to-goodness ringlets there. I’m hoping as I continue to do this, I’ll get even more defined curl.
Now to warn my brother so that he can start thinking about what he wants to do with it the next time we’re in Vegas.
So, as I mentioned, I’m in two different Oz-themed clubs at the moment. The WoolGirl one I showed you yesterday – that one is all sock-centric. The Fresh from the Cauldron club isn’t strictly socks – we’re getting two hanks of yarn each month, with a pattern for one of them. They are in different weights, too, which is nice. There may be a full-on project using the secondary skeins, if I can come up with a plan.
This was the first shipment, from April.
This shipment did have a sock theme – two hanks of sock yarn, and a very cute sock pattern, plus a circular needle case (And how much do I love the poppy button on there!) The yarn on the left is FftC Silk Sock (70% merino, 30% silk) in “No Place Like Home”, which Jen dyed in a color inspired by the sepia-tones at the beginning and end of the movie. It’s really beautiful. The yarn on the right is FftC MCN Sock (80% merino, 10% cashmere, 10% nylon) in “Not in Kansas Anymore” – a lovely pastel rainbow.
Here is May’s shipment, which arrived last week.
This was a non-sock package. The pattern is for Dorothy’s Basket – a shawl designed by Star Athena, inspired by the idea that our farm girl heroine would need something to keep herself warm when going to the market. The yarn sitting on it is FftC MCN Lace (80% merino 10% cashmere 10% nylon) in “Dorothy Gail”. I love the “If I only had a brain” mug, which goes beautifully with the FftC MCN Worsted in (of course) “Scarecrow”. I think she captured his colors perfectly.
I don’t know where she gets her base yarns, but they are FABULOUS. So squishy, and they take dye beautifully. And she does a great job with the dye, too. I’m looking forward to the next shipment! And it’s probably a good thing for me that her Etsy shop is on hiatus at the moment.
No, not more new ones. There was some interest in seeing the first three, so I got some pictures of them.
#1 – Got this the summer of 1994, shortly before I turned 21. It’s on my right leg, a little above my knee. Marvin has always been my favorite.
Funny story – my brother drew this for me. So, of course, he knew I was getting the tattoo. He (being a typical little brother) tormented me for about a week, threatening to tell my mother. Yes, I know I was an adult, but I knew she was going to hate it, and I didn’t much want to deal with it. So, finally, I went in to her room one day and said “OK, look, I need to tell you something. You aren’t going to be happy about it, but it’s too late to do anything about it now. I got a tattoo.” She just stood there for a moment and said “A tattoo.” I said “Yes. I wasn’t going to tell you, but Tom was threatening to.” “Tom knew?” “Tom drew it for me.” She kind of dropped it. However, a little while later, Tom came into my room and said “I just got yelled at for YOUR tattoo!” Taught him not to run and tattle anymore!
#2 – This was January of 1995. It’s on my lower left back, just above the waistline. (Ignore the muffintop action – I was leaning forward so Kris could take the picture of #3, and didn’t realize he was taking this one.)
I got this one to celebrate re-declaring my theatre major after having shifted to strictly a math major for a while. My friends Nikki and Ann and I drove from school down to the tattoo studio, where they both got their navels pierced while I had the masks done.
#3 – August of 2000. I designed this one myself after finding a website that showed how to draw Celtic knots.
Kris and I had been married for just over 2 years, and he decided to get a tattoo. So, I was inspired to get this one. Seeing as it is RIGHT on my spine, it was a bit on the painful side. And obviously, the “K” in the middle stands for Kris. Just in case there was any question. 
So, y’all may be aware that I’m a bit of an Oz fan. (Anyone who has seen my guest room is WELL aware) So, when not one but TWO different Oz-themed yarn clubs popped up recently, it was a pretty foregone conclusion that I was going to be joining. (And considering I got several emails of the “Hey – wanted to make sure you knew about this” about each of them, I’m pretty sure you guys knew about my fandom.) I’ve gotten two shipments from the Fresh From the Cauldron club, which I need to get pictures of and post – I just realized I hadn’t done yet. Today, I got the first shipmend from WoolGirl’s Oz Sock Yarn Club. I’ve heard about WoolGirl’s clubs, and that the packages she sends are really awesome.
I had no idea.
I open the box, and this is what greets me (Obviously, beware spoilers if you are in the club):
Beautifully packaged, tissue paper everywhere, and so much more than just the yarn.
Click through to Flickr if you want to see the tags of what all the goodies are.
And OMG the yarn. It’s Zen String Lotus Toes in sportweight (we had the option of sport or fingering) in (of course) “Over the Rainbow”. It’s beautiful.
The colors are just amazing. And it is SO SOFT.
I am so, SO glad that I signed up for the whole club. This is going to be awesome.
Five what?
TATTOOS! I went today and got myself two new ones. One of them, I’ve been planning and plotting and debating for about two years, and the other was an inspiration from about a week ago.
First – a green and purple dragonfly on my left arm. This should shock no one.
I actually drew it, and I’m pretty proud of it, considering what a crappy job I do drawing pretty much anything. Obviously, this was the one I’ve been plotting.
Number two is the sudden inspiration. As you may remember, I went to see “Wicked” over Memorial Day weekend. It was a really, really amazing experience. I’ve collected Wizard of Oz stuff since high school, and I’ve always loved the movie. When I found out about Wicked (the book), I HAD to read it. I loved it (although I know it’s not for everyone). When I heard about the musical, I was thrilled. I bought the cd as soon as it was released, and I’ve had it memorized since not long after that. The song “Defying Gravity” has always spoken to me.
Here’s the performance from the Tony Awards:
There is just something about the lyrics. So, I decided to get myself a little reminder of the sentiment in the song, in my handwriting:
I am THRILLED with both of them. I got them at Jinx Proof Tattoos in Georgetown, which was also where I went to get my nose pierced almost two years ago. It’s a great shop, and I had a terrific experience with Tim, who did my work today. He’s REALLY nice, very friendly, and made me feel really comfortable. There is very possibly a #6 in my future, and I’d go back to him in a hearbeat.
Check out what was just on our porch! He flew in through the door and couldn’t find the way back out since we just put the screens up, so Kris gave him a hand.
Clearly this is a sign that it IS time for the next tattoo.
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We made it back home from Williamsburg yesterday, miraculously hitting absolutely no traffic (Seriously – on Memorial Day. Can’t figure that out at all!). We had an utterly lovely weekend with Becky and Steve. We walked around Colonial Williamsburg on Saturday afternoon before going down to Norfolk for the show (and yes, I’m still flying high from it), and had a late lunch at The Trellis, including their signature dessert – Death by Chocolate. And yes, it was decadent. And SO GOOD.
Sunday, we went to Jamestown to see the fort, which was way cooler than I expected. History isn’t usually my thing, but something about seeing it was just… awesome. After Jamestown, we went to Williamsburg Winery for a tour and tasting (and lunch). It was such fun – Kris and I have talked about doing a tour for years, but we’ve never actually made it, so this was a lot of fun. It also resulted in a case of wine coming home with us.
We came back to the hotel and crashed for a little bit before heading out to dinner. One of Steve’s friends had recommended a seafood place, and although he couldn’t remember the name, we ended up checking out The Whaling Company, which was very good.
We had done so much walking, and I was just wiped. My feet were actually a bit puffy Sunday night, so it felt good to put them up and rest after dinner, especially since there was to be more walking on Monday.
We got up bright and early (ok, at 7. Not THAT early), packed up the car and checked out, and we drove over to Presidents Park. It’s a bit surreal to see 18-foot tall busts of the Presidents, but it was also pretty cool. At that point, we said goodbye to Becky and Steve, who hit the road back to Pittsburgh, and we headed back here. The dogs were very happy to see us again, and we beat the thunderstorms, which made the drive way more pleasant.
My feet were a little puffy again last night, so I spent most of the evening with my feet up. I had planned to hit the gym today, but my feet are still puffy and a little sore (and my calves are KILLING me from all the walking), so I’m taking the day off and just trying to catch up on laundry. Woo.
Still no progress on the Facebook situation. I searched a little more and found a reporting link specifically for accounts that had been attacked like mine, and I used that to report it again. I couldn’t give them the link to my profile page (since, you know THEY DISABLED IT), but we’ll see if anything comes of it. That form at least gave me a place to explain what had happened. I’m still waiting on a response of any sort – I haven’t heard a word from them since getting a form email on Thursday morning telling me that they had removed my account “for security purposes” and that they needed my security question answer to do anything further. I figure it’s going to be at least August before I get back on there at this rate.
Not sure what was going on with that post earlier – I sent it from my phone, and it should have worked like it always has, but it went all screwy. 
Anyway, the below is what you SHOULD have seen.
Last night was one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. Kris and I are in Williamsburg with my friend Becky and her husband Steve, and last night night we went to see the tour of the musical “Wicked”.
I was completely blown away.
Keep on mind, I’ve watched “The Wizard of Oz” more times than I can count; I collect Oz memorabilia; I’ve read the book “Wicked” several times, and I have had the cd of “Wicked” memorized since not long after it came out.
This is a show I was looking forward to, to put it mildly.
I have seen a lot of shows in my life, from high school shows to Broadway productions. I have never, EVER been as affected as I was by “Wicked” last night. From the opening moments of the overture and the movements of the Time Dragon to the last notes of the curtain call, it grabbed me and would. Not. Let. Go. I was completely enthralled by every moment. When it ended, I was actually shaking a little from all of the emotion. If I could see it again today, tomorrow, every day, I’d do it in a heartbeat. And I’m pretty sure Kris, Becky, and Steve would be right there with me.
Oh, and Amanda? I have a New Plan. I think you know what I’m referring to – we’ll talk.
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