Break Time

Sgt. Husband is coming home tonight. He gets 20 days of leave and I plan on disappearing for a while. I will have lots to show you when I get back. I'm spinning flax and knitting socks. I've got a few more pounds of Merino roving and some natural dyes. I'll be a busy bee, but I don't want to be a computer bee. Take care of yourselves.

See ya later!

Looking Busy

He'll be home in 5 days. I'm getting anxious. I've been spinning a lot because it's relaxing. I took a bunch of leftover fibers and spun this guy. I call it "Saturday Morning Cartoons." It's about 250 yards of sport weight, single ply wool. It self-stripes in large, uneven color runs. It's the yarn equivalent of a casserole.

I'm getting ready to warp my loom again. I'm knitting another pair of socks. I'm finishing a hat. I'm dyeing some wool. I'm baking bread. I'm organizing my yarn. I'm doing laundry. I'm writing letters. I'm planning menus. Mostly I wander around the house, picking up one task and dropping it almost immediately. I make lists and lose them. I walk to the bedroom and forget why I went there.

I was much more patient waiting for Santa Claus when I was eight.

Ants in my pants. Just 5 more days.

Passing Time

10 days. He'll be here in 10 days.

I finished a blanket. It's Paton's Classic Wool held double on a 5 dpi heddle. I did one side in a rigid pattern and the other in a spontaneous plaid. It's 8 ft long by slightly less than 4 ft wide. The selvages are a bit wonky, so I'll probably add an attached I-cord to the sides. I tried a crochet edge, but it looked wrong.

The only thing I don't like about this blanket is the bulky, puckered seam down the middle. Good thing I'm so proud of myself that I'm able to ignore it.

When I warped the loom, I used the direct method and pulled a loop from the red through the slot and a loop of brown through the holes. That way everything is doubled and the heddle is only threaded once. The thing I did wrong is that the warping peg kept falling and the warp got tangled. I need a better place to clamp warping pegs.

I picked a color to use for the second ply of my Bedtime Story yarn. I like it so far.

I knit something. Srsly.

I finished a pair of socks for Sgt. Husband that I started before Thanksgiving. They are boring, but I love having plain socks to work on in those little moments here and there. The yarn is Patons Kroy Stripes. I tried Kroy a few years ago and thought it was scratchy and lacked elasticity. I don't know what changed, but this yarn is bouncy, smooshy, and happy. I hope he likes them.

I also got my spinning wheel out for the first time since my husband left for Korea. The wool is a handpaint I did this summer. The colorway is "Bedtime Story." I dig it. I can't decide if I'm going to ply it on itself or spin another bump of inky, midnight blue. I'm thinking.
I hope you had a great V-Day. I ate an unladylike amount of chocolate and went to bed early.

Cool Beans

Sorry, but Hulu.com videos only play in the US. I saw this clip and thought it was funny. I've battled clinical depression for 23 years. When I find something that makes me laugh, I just plain wear it out.


Soon I'll have a humping deer hat to show you. Yes, I said humping.

I got tagged for an award!

Actually, I have been given 2, but I keep spacing out blogging about them. Cher, gave me the helper award and Lynn gave me the BFF award. Sorry it took me so long to blog about this. I've been so wrapped up in my own problems for so long that I forget about the good things that happen.

I am supposed to pass the Helping Hand award on to 5 people.

Fat Free Susan, for all the recipes. I really thought I'd end up one of those people who have to be lifted out of bed with a whale crane. Now I know I can make tons of great stuff that won't clog my arteries.

Zakka Life, for the great craft ideas--even the ones that have nothing to do with yarn.

Alwen, for the everyday life observations.

Tiny Happy, for taking pure serenity, turning it into craft, then taking awesome pictures of it.

Ms. Bellwether, for answering so many of our questions.

Crafty Gryphon, because she's supportive and funny.

I want to tag you all, but I spent hours in a clinic trying to get rid of a headache and I'm tired. I read tons of blogs and it's nice to know all of you. Blogging is a lot like having imaginary friends, expect that I'm an adult and no amount of therapy will make you go away. Yay!

Guess what, my headaches are stress related! Surprised, huh? If I don't stop grinding my teeth soon, I'll have powdered teeth and a permanent headache. My jaw muscles are like biceps, they are so strong.

I have a craft related post coming soon. It's awesome blogging with you guys.

Being in Love is Totally Punk Rock

I don't remember how I found this site, but I could read these all day. I stole the pictures from their site because I want everyone to like this webcomic.

It's funny, sad, kinda weird. That's how I describe myself to people I don't need to impress. You might like it, too.

http://www.asofterworld.com/

More Weaving

I've been sick lately. I haven't gotten a lot done. I am knitting two gifts for my husband and I need to finish them before he comes home at the end of this month.

I am actually a little worried about my husband's mid tour leave. It's been 6 months, but it feels like years. I know that I'll probably try too hard to make his vacation perfect and end up feeling like a failure and melting down. You can't turn Montana in February into Disney Land for 3 weeks. I'm pretty sure David expects this from me. He knew I was a super size helping of crazy when he married me.

I know that most of you read this blog for the knitting. I'm pretty sure than my loom lust will fade eventually. There will be more knitting and embroidery soon. I have a wonderful piece of linen that I want to embroider. Uneven weave is the new even weave.

My husband told me that he misses my knitting. I miss slouching on the couch with him and knitting my way through crappy television. I'll have to knit him some more socks while he's here and irritate him by making him try them on every 15 rows.

The purple handspun blanket is done. I put a single crochet edge on it, then got a horrible cold. This blanket has been my best friend for a few days. Kinda like The Velveteen Rabbit, only wool.

I finished a new pillow to replace the blue one the dog has claimed. It's pretty rustic, but I like it that way. I started a new blanket in red and brown, but I've been too tired and sick to warp the second half.

At least we get to buy a new sofa in Oklahoma. This busted-down piece of crap eats scissors and double pointed knitting needles. I'm taking a set of dpns with me to the furniture store when we pick out the new one. If it swallows any of the needles and forces me to flip it over and get pinched in metal bars and snagged by nails, it's staying there.

Wake and Bake

Fable is adjusting well. She has taken over David's ragged hand knit pillow. She kneads it like bread with her front paws before she takes her nap. So cute.

What a difference 10 years makes. Wake and bake in my 30s means that I get up and start baking with the oven.

I'm making whole wheat soft pretzels. My house smells like the food court in my hometown mall. Yum.

I warped my bulky heddle. This was so much easier. Ashford rigid heddles fit on Kromski Harp looms--and they are cheaper and come in bulkier dpi.

I used my handspun Beaverslide Merino that has been languishing for over a year. I don't enjoy knitting with large gauges very much and I can't wear this color without looking jaundiced, so I decided to weave a blanket. I warped about 10 feet and I'll cut the finished piece in half and sew the halves together to make a square shape.

Weaving with handspun yarn is actually easier and more pleasant than the cotton I started with. Plus the flaws look intentional. Bonus.

French knots make cancer cells look lovely

cervical dysplasia 007, originally uploaded by alexcateye.

Here's an old embroidery I did. It's my depiction of cervical dysplasia. I know it's no fun, but don't forget get to get the vajayjay checked. I have been dealing with cervical dysplasia (a bad pap) for a couple of years. I don't like the procedures I've gone through, but the sooner you catch it, the less invasive the treatment is. I can say 100% that it's better than dying, losing your fertility, or having organs removed.

I promised another blogger that I'd post this little Public Service Announcement. Check out her post here: http://slapthatpony.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-yearly-post-please-read.html

I believe in the the power of self-imposed art therapy. Take your problem, stab it with a needle a few thousand times, and make it look pretty. Control it. Own it. Move on.

The Thing

John Carpenter's The Thing with stop-motion GI Joes, from Zombie Zombie

I remember watching The Thing at a drive-in movie theater with my father. It was right before my parents divorced, so I must have been 7 or 8. I was supposed to be asleep in the back of the station wagon, but I couldn't stop watching. I was terrified out of my mind. Nothing is scarier than blood on snow.

When my brother and I were in high school, we drove to my grandparents' cabin in Red Lodge, MT for Christmas. On the way home we passed a horrible car accident. There was bright red blood all over the snow. There were bright emergency lights flickering through the snow. My father stopped to help and we sat at least an hour (it's possible it was only minutes, but this is how I remember it) and my brother looked terrified. This is the only memory of his being scared ever.

His blood and his daughter's blood were on the snow last year. I don't think I'll ever get that image out of my mind.

I saw this stop-motion video on Boing Boing and thought I'd share it. In the interest of slaying demons, I face things I used to hide from. The scariest memories of my life seem much smaller when told with dolls. GI Joes are like miniature plastic Chuck Norrii (the plural form of Chuck Norris.) Maybe everything seems smaller as an adult.

Today is my wedding anniversary. My life-size GI Joe is freezing in Korea. He has promised not to play strip poker with the warm woolies I have knit him. (That was a reference to MASH. I always picture David on the set of the 4077 instead of a modern air base.)

The next month is going to be long, but my love is waiting on the other side of February.

X is for...

I totally forgot to finish my ABC Along last year. Here is my X. I was proud of the X in my first name as a kid. I got teased a lot for having a boys' name, but somehow the X made up for it. A couple of years ago, I was at a party where everyone was picking out their stage names in case they ever became pr0n stars. Mine was Alexxxandra. My real name sounds more fake than any fake name I could invent. That still cracks me up.

Since a picture of Alexxx is frightening, here is an X I make every day.

I am working on Sgt. Husband's second sock. He gets leave 2/26 for 3 weeks. There is no point in explaining how excited I am since the English language only has a quarter of a million words.

I'm working on a scrap blanket. I have the loom put up until I can trust the dog not to chew on the wood. I am weaving it in two vertical pieces. The yarn is leftovers from everything and a skein of banana silk that I bought in a moment of yarn foolishness. I bought blanket binding to hide my edges. It might be pretty.