“Lay off, will ya!?”

Um, I kind of disappeared again. I’ve been doing that quite a bit lately. After the whole finger post I was laying low. I made a few post over in the doll blog but that was it. I did go to the DC Cherry Blossom festival last saturday with the Mr, Katie, Caitlin and her friend Andy. I had a great crew to travel with and had a great time all around. The trip was more doll related then anything so I left a mini post about it in the other blog in case others are interested.

So that I don’t bore those who may not care, everything else is under the cut:
The finger is doing well. No nerve damage that I can see. I can move it and there is no numbness. Even though I’m finally able to look at it (it took a week O_o), it still looks pretty gross if you ask me. The Mr was a huge help in mending my wounds and changing the dressing on it. I’m still able to knit and work, though I can’t really use the tip of my finger just yet. Luckily I trained my other fingers to take up the slack when I’m having index finger issues.

I’m busy getting ready for Balticon and then Otakon. I’ll have a schedule up sometime soon of all the shows I’ll be doing this year. One show I’m also going to be working is the sheep and wool festival next month, for the shop. I’m too excited. I live in Maryland and knit like a fiend yet I’ve never been. We’re going to be doing wood turning demos and hopefully have quite a few items for sale like drop spindles and niddy-noddys and all those good useful things. We’re also going to be advertising for the wood turning school since we’re adding a “part two” to the fiber tools class. Once I get more info like table location and such, I’ll post it.

It’s definitely getting warmer. We need to do some serious work in the garden. The peonies are popping up. One of the two trees are ready to bloom (I think the one tree is still too young to do anything just yet. Maybe next year). The peony bush on the opposite side of the garden is just sprouting and has a few tiny buds. One stalk has made it’s way up to the trees. It’s so odd but it’s a single stalk with one tiny bud. I’m going to leave it alone for now to see what it does.

There are a few more flowers plants that I would like to add. We’ll have some room once I trim the rose bush down. It’s getting a bit out of control. The lemon balm is back as well and is ready to take over. I’m cutting all of that back and saving one bush which will be kept in a container away from the garden. It’s just a mess when the end of July hits. We plan on growing some veggies as well this year. I’m going to try radishes and edamame. Maybe even zucchini since we eat quite a bit of that through out the year. We need to start soon though since it’s now almost mid april.

This evening was rather unproductive so I’m heading to bed early. I’ve been doing that the past several nights. I’ve been getting so tired around this time every night. Maybe I’m getting a healthier sleep routine. We’ll see.

the mr joined another photo contest this month.

….pssss…. vote for #1;)

I’m so brilliant. And because of my brilliance I’m missing half of an entire nail and have a busted knuckle. Way to go, Amu! It could have been worse but it still hurts and is a pain in my butt right now (who knew I did so much with this one finger). I will have to thank my aunt, uncle and Joe for acting fast or I would be a puddle of goo on the shop floor right now.

The Mr said that most would rather see what is under the bandage rather than the bandaged version. WhatO_o! I don’t even want to see whats there myself. There goes any future hope of being a hand model.

Now I’m off to see if I can figure out a way to knit with my right foot. Tata.

I’m still going through photos from a fantastic meet up I went to yesterday. Sadly they will have to wait another day since I have a few things to do before I start my work week tomorrow.

I’m still spinning away. I managed to get a bit spun while I was waiting for a sweater to block after the meet, last night. As I had said in a post earlier to this, I plan to use this yarn for a doll sweater… I know you’re all disappointed right? They dress better than me most of the time…

It’s a nice little project though, spinning the yarn to knit into a sweater. When I was taking a few fashion design courses (… over a decade ago… I feel so old now) I found that my pick of fantastic fabric shops was pretty limited. In Baltimore that meant there were none, unless you thought Joannes was the place to go (no!!). I never found the right fabric for my projects and wished I went into designing tectiles instead. A few years later I picked up knitting, simply for the fact I was pretty much creating my own fabric. Now, I’m able to go back an extra step further.

I’m such a noob in so many ways. Right now I’m trying to go as thin as I can knowing very well that I’m not using the right spindle and weight. That’s okay, another project for me at the shop will be to make a smaller lighter weight spindle. Another problem is knowing when to stop. This looks like it could be enough… but then again, it doesn’t. It’s quite relaxing once I get a rhythm going so I don’t mind finishing off the wool I had left. As for what type of sweater, I’m thinking of just making a non-mohair version of the Takumi sweater. A comfy, chunky sweater. Maybe something inspired by the gorgeous sweaters made by Craig Hunter of Cubist Literature. (by the way, he has a pretty awesome pattern up on Knitty this season).

Yesterday I helped out with the Fiber tools class at Mark Supik and Co. and had such a fantastic time. We had a wonderful group of students who were enthusiastic and just totally in the class. As usual I was in awe of my uncle’s teaching and demo skills. Having been taught by him myself over the years, his instructions are always clear and easy to understand. You always seem to get it after the first explanation.

I gave a demo myself and turned a drop spindle. Even though everyone was able to make what they wanted in the second half of the class, three of the six students made drop spindles themselves. Other projects included nostepinnes, orifice hooks and a niddy noddy. Everyone was able go home with a few projects that they made from one day of class. It was a busy day and I was so beat in the end but it was great.

The photo above is the spindle I made during the demo. I started using it today without putting a finish on (which I normally recommend) but I was too impatient. I’m spinning some merino wool I picked up at the convention center, the last year Stitches was in Baltimore. It’s hard to tell but it’s a beautiful gold silky looking merino. Even though the spindle is just too large and heavy for lace weight I’m seeing how thin I can go with it. I would like to see if I can spin enough for a doll sweater. Wish me luck.

By the way, I was told this week that my work at the shop was “Awesome!”. Now, I normally wouldn’t make a big deal about this, but it was said to me three times in one conversation by a little old lady who was touring the shop. I thought it was rather blog worthy, don’t you?