goals

i decided not to have any new year's resolutions this year.  instead i have chosen 3 crafty goals to achieve.  this really excites me rather than creating a daunting  feeling of formidable failure which always looms over me when i make resolutions.
my goals:

1.  learn to knit socks in the toe up format.  i've avoided this method for years and it's time to learn a new way of doing socks-if i hate it- i can at least say i tried it and never do it again.  besides- i really want to make knee socks and this seems to be the preferrred method when it come to calf shaping etc.

2. learn to embroider!!!  i got this great book at ben franklin called "doodle-stitching"  by aimee ray

looks like a great book- i can't wait to start!  i stumbled across a blog i want to share with you-"one sheepish girl."  very inspiring- she embroiders too-click here to see her embroidery creativity!! 

3. learn to crochet for reals!! i fell in love with this hexagon blanket.  i saw it on ravelry and fogwalker(her ravelry name) used "malabrigo"  for god-sake!!!  no red heart for this girl-  it must be the softest thing ever!!!! here's her project page if you are interested. here is a picture:

now you can see why i want to learn crochet.  i really really must have one of these blankets.  

i also want to learn to quilt but i think i'll save that for next year.  i think i'll be plenty busy as it is.  damn- i have chores awaiting-i'd rather be creating........why do these things always have to get i  the way of my creativity-why oh why!

birth of a geysir!

despite many commissions and UFOs(unfinished objects-knitter lingo)  i joined one of my favorite knitting designers, stephen west, choreoKAL in november.  it was fabulous-  for 10$  you received a month long issue of patterns-a new one each week, along with stretching videos to help with the body getting tight while knitting.  quite entertaining too!  there were bonus patterns as well!  best 10$  i ever spent.  the first pattern was the geysir stretch shawl.  one look and i knew i had to cast on immediately!!!!  i was determined to use yarn from my stash.  i had some awesome yarn i got at my LYS this summer at the annual parking lot sale.  just call me little miss thrifty!  the yarn was-get this----1$  a skein.  yes, you read that correctly.  only one freakin dollar per skein-and it called for  four skeins of worsted weight yarn.  my four dollar shawl.  skeins were originally 17$ per skein.  that would have been a 68$  shawl.  yes, major pat on the back!!!  the yarn is "knit one crochet too"  meadow silk.  a wonderful wool silk blend with nice drape.

 

 it took about 4 starts to get the color combo and gauge that i liked best.  worsted weight yarn on size 9 needles this is a quick satisfying project.  i finished it the first week in january. the 2nd to be exact!  amazing for me- as it takes me forever to finish projects cause i keep starting new ones!  my pattern notes are here if you want more info.

this shawl grows quickly!

i can't resist a photo shoot of this beautiful shawl- i love it so much.  bear with me!

blocking on the kitchen table

collected my breakfast and couldn't resist to add it to the photo shoot!

 

stephen encouraged people to look around in their environment for color inspiration and take a photo of it and then share a photo of your yarn(color) choice.  very cool to see what people came up with.  i started looking around at color combos much more than usual.  but being that i was stash busting, i didn't get to choose my colors this way.  but as i was knitting i kept thinking of a robin's nest with eggs.  after i completed the shawl i went on google images and found my photo inspiration-ha!

i have some of the robin egg yarn color left and i think i'll make a little hat to match.  too cute!

and the winner is................

while the boys were away i did a bit of New Years cleaning-i know hard to believe.  i moved a stack of boxes(full of fiber no doubt)  and low and behold i found underneath something my mother would have been horrified to find.  not me-i was fascinated.  so, the other day on my facebook page i ran a little contest -who ever could guess what i found would win a prize.  wow!  that woke folks up!  people love to win things-i didn't even list the prize.  i did get a winner pretty quickly-the answer wasn't exact but close enough.  i didn't want to spoil the fun right away and tell people i had a winner-so soon.  i was getting some real good answers!  in fact they were so good i decided to add a second prize for the answer that just cracked me up-out loud. here's the list for you to enjoy.  i just cut and pasted the list- too lazy to retype-hence the caps!

"petrified lizard, a dead mouse under the sofa, dead dehydrated bird on top of a beam, an old old old Easter egg, dead snake? a roll of 100 dollar bills equal to a thousand under the kitchen sink? dog turd, cool yarn stash, dried Frog, mummified Cornish game hen, growing mushrooms,  MUMMIFIED EX BOYFRIEND- THAT HAD BEEN LIVING IN YOUR ATTIC!, AMELIA EIRHART!!!,  JIMMY HOFFA!, MOHAIR YARN WITH MOTHS IN IT!, MOUSE NEST MADE FROM MOHAIR YARN,  D.B. Cooper, a little stash of teeth that a pack-rat collected(because they were pretty),  D.B. Cooper's money? an uncashed tax refund from 2001,
grilled cheese sandwich!, yer kid's very old and dusty diaper, Cooter!!!!!, an expired yarn gift certificate,  a deer leg, that your dog brought in!, sheep pellets, mummified bat, ancient dog barf and lastly owl Pellets."  wow!  what a great list!!!  could become a great children's book someday. Aunt Betty's Cleaning Frenzy!!!

 okay-i know you all are at the edge of your seat. drum roll please!! the winner is sharon campbell!!!! 

sharon guessed "a dead mouse under the sofa"- but it is just the head of a dead mouse and it was under a box of fiber.  and i remember the night Kitzie (may she rest in peace)  brought it in the house, tortured it and chased it behind that stack of boxes. i didn't want to deal with it at 3:00am. then forgot about it.  wondered what that smell was later on.  sharon you win an original woolydaisy hand dyed skein of yarn- woowoo!!!  please email me your mailing addy!

the second prize winner goes to lee from the north coast.  the mummified ex-boyfriend that was living in the attic just had me crying-so very norman bates-just loved it.  although i loved all of the answers!!! the stash of teeth was a close one-was that lee or marzel? i did have a dog once that was always finding deer legs and wanted to bring them in the house!!!  he just couldn't understand why i wouldn't let him do that!  and yes, i do have a collection of petrified lizards and owl pellets.

and yes folks i'm a sucker for prizes too-so third prize winner is marzel for her excitement, enthusiasm  and passion for this contest. marzel-you get a skein of my hand dyed  yarn as well- and lee, yours is a surprise!

 i leave you with a couple of pics of my hand knit socks.

 more to come!!!


 

the voice of reason...........damn you!

here it is 2013!!!!  welcome!!!!  it's the first new year's i've spent alone in....wait.  it is the very first new year's i've spent alone in my whole life.  oh- don't pity me.  i love alone time.  it's not often i get special "wooly"  time all to my "daisy"  self.  the boys are away on mountain bike adventure to so. cal.  check out our new '98 subaru!

unfortunately, everytime i do get "wooly" time something happens that challenges me.  i think the last time it was an eleven day power outage. this time- a touch of the stomach flu or possible food poisoning from that manhatten veggie clam chowder i made.  is it often that canned clams are bad?  but i'm enduring and pushing on.  i WILL enjoy my self damn it!!

it wasn't long after the boys left that i went freakin uber ape shit and started pulling boxes and bins out of my closet studio- i began 3 new knitting projects and a spinning project as well. not to mention winding skeins for dyeing!  i was crazed! a lunatic-practically foaming at the mouth.  running around the house knitting 5 minutes on one project, 5 minutes on another project, 5 minutes of spinning, on the phone to neighbor and fellow fiber trash girl rhodi-"quick, do have a size 13, 36 inch circular knitting- oh please oh please!!!!"  yes, score!  there's another new project--yehaa!!! 

i was acting like a meth head with a table piled high with meth!!!  totall bliss.  but then, the loud voice of reason came crashing down on me like john henry's hammer.

 that's me-the spike! rained on my parade.  damn you loud voice of reason! whisper you did not!  i came to my senses. brought back to reality-out of my fiber induced frenzy. i have many commissioned projects i need to finish first and my geysir stretch shawl is almost finished. just 6 more rows and the bind off!  it's fabulous pattern by the fabulous stephen west.  quick knit except the edging seems to be taking for-EVAR!!!!!  which makes me want to start a new project...  i think it's time to hunker down and watch "flash dance"-(it's newly added to netflix you know) and just get it done!!!

well, i've dabbled enough on this machine......i need to get me cold arse outside and feed the chickens, walk the dragon, pick up the house a bit and then settle in for a day of fibery bliss......................... oh wait one more thing.  you've got to see my new project bag i gifted to my precious self at solstice.  katie from dancing sheep made it.  check out her etsy shop!  no more disgusting plastic bright yellow grocery outlet project bags for this fiber trash girl...yes, i know the plastic bags are more trashy-esque.  but come on, let's get real.

JUST SAY NO!

it's been a long haul...............

i can't believe it's been 7 months since i last posted. and blogger has completely changed!!!  argh!!!!  sigh.  heavy sigh.  do you know how many blog posts ive written in my head since then...too many to count.  i write in my head constantly- and when i'm alone i write out loud(i.e. talking to myself)  my dog thinks i'm nuts!  besides stephen west hasn't blogged since april 25th.  so, i'll try not to feel too bad about it!

my hubby asked me once if the reason i hadn't posted in so long was because of all my time spent on facebook.  i thought about it for a second-as yes, i am on facebook a lot.  but that's not the real and whole reason.  i realized it was.....depression.  there i said it. i don't like blogging about depressing downer stuff-who wants to read my  whiny-ass complaints -or about me on my pity pot-how pathetic.  but then i realized-the title of my blog is "the woolydaisy-a window into my world"   my world.....my world isn't always as rosy, peachy keen and awesome as i portray it be. i only write about the cool and fabulous stuff. but  my life is just like everyone elses-up and down, good and bad-a constant ebb and flow.  yet 2012 seemed particularly hard on me.  i struggled and still am struggling with many things. 

between a minor bike wreck and bad physical therapy i managed to rupture and tear a disc in my lower back(L5-S-1 vertebrae)  the pain was unbelievable....  i was unable to do anything-sitting and driving were the worst!  i'm a very physical person-and being forced into a  seditary life was just too much- everything hurt-i couldn't bike, hike,spin wool or sit to knit, load the dish washer-let alone go to the bathroom without crying. ( i know i know tmi)  but when you start fearing the need to go to the bathroom-you know your life is sucking.....big time.  simple things you take for granted-poof!   the doctor wanted me to do the steroid injections into my disc-that just didn't sit right with me.  -i decided to take the slow less invasive route-i got off the pain killers except ibuprophen, boosted many natural supplements and took it as easy as possible.   what a long haul it's been...if you've never been in chronic pain before you don't realize how depressing it is.  your life is taken away from you.  i'm still on my daily doses of ibuprophen but i'm feeling better and stronger and see light at the end of the tunnel.  i can take walks now- flat ones.  driving no longer makes me cry.  no movie theatres for me  but i can do more and more each day.  and look forward to the day i can ride my bike again.  you see- i was getting really strong and in great shape-best ive been in years.  i felt great.  i was planning on training.....training hard to race the downieville classic in my 50th year.  i turn 50 soon....very soon.  there will be no such race for me.  i've come to terms with it, but i'm still disappointed.  i set a goal.  and it crumbled.  i realize now my back will never be able to handle the "trail of tears" -i know that sounds negative-just being realistic. the beginning of the race starts with 8 miles up the mountain-known as the "trail of tears."  taint gonna happen.   2013 is going to be spent rebuilding my body, getting healthy and getting my mojo back!  onward and upward!

a quik update for the latter half of 2012:

our youngest, liam graduated 8th grade-which brought my 14 years of homeschooling career to an end. very very emotional for me.  he is now attending an early college high school in town.  it's is on the community college campus and he earns college credit while also attending high school classes- for free!  it's a fabulous school and program.   best of all he really likes it.  i was so worried about the adjustment-  i mean homeschooled your whole life-then put into 5 days a week public school- i've been going thru a mini version of the empty nest.  

liam has grown and still enjoys his mountain bike racing.  he is now on a high school mountain bike team they have been training and the racing starts in february.  this past summer he did some major races-  i am so proud to say he placed 2nd in his division at the downieville classic-a big accomplishment!!!

beginning of race in sierra city

happy racer!

i won't go into too much detail about his racing as he has his own blog now.  check it out if you are interested
sierra singletracks.  it's a great blog!!!!

we got a new car this summer-her name is ruby-aint she sweet?-we traded her for a our old funky vw bug.

racking my brain here....what else???  we had another fabulous and wonderful annual fiber trash girls retreat in forest city again!  besides tons of fiber fun we enjoyed many goodies:

you can't beat bacon beer and corn whiskey!

big plans to do a whole fiber trash girl retreat post-someday-yeah right~~

i put some fibery stuff in the county fair.

wow!  it's been a long time since i've posted- now my brain hurts.  i can't think anymore-that's it in a nutshell.  i'm tired.  wrapped up the year the best i could . i have tons of fibery project i should be working on!  so-have a great new year!!!!  may the new year be filled with much fibery goodness!!!!

a little bit of this, a lttle bit of that.

the finishing goddesses are hanging around my house these days-yes, it's true-drum roll please!!!! throw in a few fireworks too!

because i "little miss startius of all times" has finished yet another UFO. my kick ass hand dyed, hand spun socks. BFL BABY!!! as seen in my previous post.

being a knitter-i have tons of stuff that needs hand washing. i loath hand-washing my stuff. it seems so time consuming. even with the fancy no rinse wool washes out there-i still loath and i like to complain about it. today i was inspired -a vision brought forth to me-by the old winemakers of italy. if i fill my bathtub with warm water and add my special "no rinse" wool wash-i can clean a bunch of stuff at once.

note my feet(remember the old winemakers of italy) i just walked all over my knits. i did not stomp as i didn't want to felt them. i let them soak awhile and walked some more. when i was done i just put them in the washing machine and did a spin cycle to spin out the extra water. and wah-la! they were done. lay flat to dry. this method is NOT meant for delicate knits!!! this is for your hearty rugged knits. farm knits(thanks ann!) cleans your feet nicely as well:) look at the dirt at the bottom of the tub- yuck! you shoulda seen the water. a tad embarrassing i might add. guess i need to wash them more often. i did get 5 sweaters, 2 vests and a man cowl washed in one swoop!

i recently went to chico for an appointment and as any addicted fiber artist will confess- i HAD to visit the local yarn shop. heartstrings was the name and savings was the game! when my friend and i walked in we were greeted with smiles and i quote "everything in the shop is on sale-everything!" had i died and gone to heaven? i had to pinch myself. i was NOT dreaming. then a horrible thought came to mind-you aren't closing the store are you? i asked. nope-it was their annual sale-to clear space for the new fall yarns. well glory be!!!!

i was rather restrained if you ask me. i got some wool wash-yeah! a skein of misty alpaca-baby me boo.(top skein) in a delicious iced raspberry melody. i have wanted this yarn for a cowl for fricken ever! right below that is a gorgeous skein of tree frog pediboo. ultra soft merino /bamboo blend. it's the most gorgeous silvery charcoal metal color! i started(shhhh) the tidepool cowl for Liam's ES at our homeschool charter. we have had Gale as our educational specialist since Liam was in kindergarten. i wanted to make her something special. bottom left is a skein of noro kuryeon sock yarn- for half price!!! how can you resist that????? bottom right is another noro yarn- "ayatori" 60 % wool 40% silk. in soft subtle muted colors. can you say snugly cowl??
as you can see- i was very good-i coulda gone gonzo ape shit. sale goes till june 9th ya'll, do i smell a Fiber trash girl road trip???? we found an awesome restaurant too!

on the homestead side of things we had a surprise on mother's day-

not 4 baby chicks but 8! our rooster-"gimpy" can barey get around but he's able to get himself in and out of the hen house and get to the food and water-and he obviously can still get the job done as we thought the eggs were blanks. mae bell and june- both sat on the eggs and both mothered the chicks together-too cute. we did end up giving mae bell and the babies to someone as we do NOT need more chickens!!! speaking of chickens. our girls have been laying great!!!!! beautiful eggs.

we had the best lettuce crop we have ever had this spring. we just finished up the last head. how nice not to have to buy lettuce. can't wait to plant more this fall. look at the size of the head.

till next time..........

mini post

a few weekends ago the boys ventured out and rode the north yuba trail. i am still unable to ride- back issues suck! but i made a little hang out spot at rocky rest and knit the time away!

had the whole beach to myself!! note: no longer a Luddite-my knitting pattern is saved on an apple device. yes, it's true. i've been applefied. here's my view while sitting on my blanket.

i worked on one of my UFOs(unfinished object). handspun socks. the pattern is so simple. i love this pattern-check it out! it's free!!!

that's all for now- just a mini post- not feeling like posting much more. maybe later. ciao.

sea otter, a miracle and the happy dance!

lot's happening here at the woolydaisy homestead. haven't had a chance to blog about anything. to catch up- we headed to monterey to the sea otter classic- an amazing bicycling event- our youngest son loves cross country mountain bike racing and sea otter is the bomb! (gee don't i sound hip? hahaha-i'm sure the bomb is already old school-help me out here hipsters)

liam was very excited as sea otter is the "stitches" for bicycling- booths galore with everything imaginable from tires to chain lube, cliff bars to handle bars- great swag!! i was burping cytomax by the end of the weekend!!!

Liam raced the cross country mountain bike race. 14.6 miles i think it was with a lot of elevation gain.

liam did great! he came in 11th out of 31 racers. very proud of him!!

got to spend a wee bit at the beach as well! i "heart " the monterey coast so much!!!

spring exploded while we were gone.

i quickly started some healing salve with all the herbs that were bursting forth! calendula, plantain and self heal.

placed them in in a jar with olive oil to steep on the windowsill. later i will strain the herbs and blend the oil with bees wax to make the salve.

many of you are probably wondering about the "miracle" in due time in due time...saving the best for last:)

I made another lacy gaitor -see previous post, using the same skein. this time i used a different cast on on method with smaller needles-#3 and the rest of the cowl was done on #4. this worked much better.


compare the 2 cowls- the top one being the new cowl with the different cast on. the first one was too loose and floppy. if you want more info-go to my ravelry project page here.

dish rags have been happening on the homestead- i want to eventually have all handmade ones. never buy a store bought one again. here's a new one:

bet you didn't know dish rags could be so exciting and cool- hey they are the bomb too! and so are folks who make them! more to come!

remember "darlin" the merino fleece i purchased from judy at stitches LAST year? well to refresh your memory click here. i finally got around to getting it processed. a huge thank you to mardi for taking it down to morro fleece works for me and to wendy who picked it up and brought it back-saved a bunch on shipping!! it turned out fabulous. sheri does such a great job at morro fleece works.

buttery goodness! luckily hubby was out of town so i could sneak the huge box into my yarn store, studio, closet. now if my back would just cooperate i could start spinning down my stash!!!

DRUM ROLL PLEASE! now the moment you've all been waiting for-the miracle. what miracle? are you ready? woolydaisy-yes, that's me......actually completed a UFO(unfinished object.) insert happy dance- i finished my tappan zee bartlett cardi and i love it so much!!! it even fits!!! this is really big for me- miss winner of the startitus award!!!

hope to get some modeling pics soon. i love elsebeth lavold silky wool yarn-one of my favs!! and in my favorite color too- my sistah sharon describes the color perfectly: "electric pear/acid bio-luminescent bog moss lichen green" thanks for the description sharon-it's perfect!

if you've been keeping up with my blog you will know what this means-woolydaisy-hey that's me-can cast on a new project guilt free!!!! and i did-immediately-got my junkie fix!!!! keep it shiny wooly!!! i casted on my brown-eyed susan shawlette from juju's loops new fabulous book!!!

i'm knitting mine from shibui staccato sock-merino/silk! ultra soft baby!!!! cruising right along while learning the joy and tranquility of becoming a monogamous knitter. well sort of.