Livin' La Needle Loca

...yeah, didn't think that would fly. For some reason, I never did get a chance to blog, even though I had 4 days off!! Wednesday afternoon and evening were busy as I prepped as much as I could for T-Day dinner, got the turkey in the brine, and did a little cleaning. Thursday was a blur, with the meal preparation and the final house cleaning. The meal was good and the company was fun. The Daughter was a great help with the clean-up. Friday is normally our day to go to the Christmas tree farm with friends, but they had to reschedule this year. Instead, I did a little weaving and a little spinning. The Daughter and I went to the movies in the afternoon and saw Burlesque. Loved it!! But then, I do love Christina Aguilera, Cher, and musicals... Saturday was another laid-back day. More weaving and spinning, and not much else. Here's what the wrap looks like so far: Sunday was the postponed Christmas tree farm trip. Our hosts asked me to bring a side dish to go with lasagna...

...I almost did a "Hold, please" post instead. Haven't taken any pictures in a few days...sorry! The Daughter is now officially moved to the West coast and is living with us until she figures out her next steps.   In the midst of all the holiday madness, I got a flat tire that could not be repaired. So yesterday morning I spent an hour and a half at the dealership getting my tires replaced and having the other 3 tires checked.  Managed to get the last Thanksgiving grocery run done this morning before coming into work. My timing was good because by the time I was loading my car, the parking lot was filling up. Yes! Baked my pies last night and pre-baked the yams. That's all I  managed to do before curling up on the couch and watching Dancing with the Stars. Specking of which, very happy that Jennifer Grey won! Haven't touched my knitting, spinning or weaving since Sunday...it's all put away for now. I have no idea if I'll have time to post ag...

...from the garden again!  (I know. I just can't get it together with my crafts. Sigh) The Husband decided we needed some fall color, so he bought some cyclamen. These are in the cobalt planters in our atrium (AKA courtyard). It's been threatening to rain since early morning, so the light wasn't great when I took the pictures. In a different eye candy vein, I ordered some yarn from Blur Moon Fiber Arts last week to take advantage of my sock club coupon. I bought this yarn for it's name: Raspberry Moose! It's more moose than raspberry, though. Oh, well! I bought this Marine Silk to weave a wrap for myself, in True Blood Red. I knew the color would be different than on the web page because that image is a different fiber, but I was quite surprised that this was more on the pink side than red. It's still pretty and one of my colors, just not what I was expecting. Up this weekend: A big housecleaning push! With company coming on Wednesday and my wo...

...as promised, pictures of the yarn I finished spinning over the weekend. This is Swamp: and a close-up: Specs: Started 11/7/10 Finished 11/13/10 Merino-Bamboo top (4oz) from Fiber Fiend Spun and Navajo-plied on Lendrum DT Folding Wheel 171.2 yards, 12 WPI I still haven't gotten very far with my sock knitting. I'm carrying them around with me so they are not "out of sight, out of mind," but I'm just not working on them! I made some progress on the Turquoise Trails needlepoint last night. It's very pretty, but I'm getting a little tired of straight stitching with the equivalent of pearl cotton 12 that is used to fill some sections. I pretty resigned to the fact that if I finish anything else this month it will be spinning and not needlepoint, knitting, or weaving. I don't know...maybe the time change did me in!  

...because this day has completely escaped me! Never schedule your car's routine maintenance for Monday morning at 8:30am. Between the parents dropping their kids off at school and people who have forgotten how to drive over the weekend, it will take you longer to get to the car dealership than it will take them to do your oil change. Ask me how I know... Take pictures when you think of it over the weekend, because you might have done #1 above and ran out of time to take them before you left home. (Sorry, no pictures!) Thanksgiving is next week, people! Visited the brand new mega-Safeway over the weekend, along with 50 thousand other people (there's another "never" for you). This puppy is huge! They have a much larger produce section and a large prepared food/cheese section than any other Safeway I've been to. But, their selections in the meat area are still limited to the same stuff and the beef is expensive. Finished spinning my Swamp Merino-Bamboo yarn...

...brought to you by the letter P . P omegranates... P urple Salvia... and Icelandic P oppy. Up this weekend: Spin In!! Yay! After having to miss Craft Night this week, I really need to spend some time with like-minded people. I love the Husband, but there's only so much crafty talk he can handle! (I feel the same way about web programming, so it all works out...) I want to spend a little time going through magazines and firm up my menu for Thanksgiving. We're hosting the Husband's parents again and we hope that some other family members might join us for dinner or dessert.  I'm not sure whether the Daughter will be able to be with use for dinner as her father will be in town. We'll get her for at least part of the day, though! The daughter's room is in good shape. There are a couple small things to do, like wash the sheets, but it's as ready as it can be at this point. I need to move on to my craft room because it's a disaster! That will...

...as promised, here is the latest spinning: I am well into bobbin #2. My goal is to finish spinning the singles by Saturday so I can ply at Spin-In. Guess I need to go stash diving to find the next fiber to spin! My last installment of the Loopy Ewe Sock Club arrived on Monday. It's very pretty (see it behind the spoiler picture). I'm sad because this is the last club installment for the year. To get into this club, you go into a lottery and hope that your number is picked. Once picked, you get one year with an option to renew for a second year. After that, you go back into the lottery. I was very lucky to get in on my first attempt. I don't think my luck will hold for next year. While I love the Blue Moon Fiber Arts sock club, the Loopy Ewe Sock Club extras are the best...definitely my favorite sock club! I can only hope that I get in again next year!

...as in making up for the camera-fail on Friday. We have very few things blooming right now...a very confused plum tree and a few flowers. These are some Icelandic poppies in our window boxes: There are still a few chile peppers that are not quite ready, like this Trinidad Scorpion chile: You have to wonder about anything with "scorpion" in its name... The weekend report: I got a lot further on the Daughter's room than I intended, mostly because my brother is coming to stay with us for a night and I thought it might be nice if he could use the bed! There's still more work to be done, but I think I've done as much as I can until she gets home and decides how to organize her closet, etc. In between chores, errands, and mailing my package, I spun a little of this: I bought this at Stitches West 2010 from Fiber Fiend. It surfaced when I was putting stuff away in my craft room. When I couldn't decide which craft to work on, I remembered it and de...

...somehow the landscape feature (as in pictures of landscape) on my camera has gone wonky. The last few pictures I've taken have been very grainy. Now I haven't made any changes to the settings, so I don't know what's going on. I tired to take a picture of the morning sky and it looked terrible. So instead you get another picture from our trip to Baltimore--another mosaic from the American Visionary Art Museum. This one is on the wall facing their little garden area. Up this weekend: Continue to work on the Daughter's room and find new locations for my craft stuff.  (I  really need to start using up some of my stash so I don't have to store so much!) I have a package to mail out tomorrow from the postal station inside the Hallmark store. (And I might just have to look at some of their Holiday stuff...) Then there's the standard household stuff to do, and errands. It might be a little hard to concentrate on chores and errands with the loom calling to ...

... didn't finish a lot on the craft-front this month.  Oh, well... Finished: 10/28 The Whale's Migratory Tale yarn (spinning) [ Ravelry ] BFL-Silk from Pro-Verbial Fiber club by A Verb for Keeping Warm; Yield: 418.75 yards, 2-ply; WPI: 18 Books: For a Few Demos More, Kim Harrison The Outlaw Demon Wails, Kim Harrison White Witch, Black Curse, Kim Harrison Black Magic Sanction, Kim Harrison Taken By Midnight, Lara Adrian Queene of Light, Jennifer Armintrout Child of Darkness, Jennifer Armintrout Veil of Shadows, Jennifer Armintrout Started: 10/23 The Whale's Migratory Tale yarn (spinning) [ Ravelry ] Fiber: 75% BFL, 25% Tussah Silk, dyed with Indigo; Pro-Verbial Fiber club from A Verb for Keeping Warm; Worked on: Happy Pumpkin Scissor Fob by Shepherd's Bush (cross stitch) Mochaberry Brambles (knitting) [ Ravelry ] The Beets Go On (renamed, was My Heart Beets 4U) socks (knitting) [ Ravelry ] Turquoise Trail by Laura J Perin (needlepoint) Work...

...and I still haven't done a recap for October. Oops! I've been working on two projects: the Mochaberry Bramble socks and Turquoise Trail. The socks don't look substantially different than the last picture I showed you, but the needlepoint does: As I mentioned, I finished the Neon Rays sections (shiny, light blue). I was having trouble positioning some of the elements and decided to do some sections out of order. According to the pattern I'm not supposed to do the metallic rays (the circular medallions in the upper right and lower left) until step 11. Stitching these will help me determine when to stop stitching in the sections where the rays appear. There is still a lot to do. Maybe I'll finish it this year, and maybe not given that December is cookie month! I've been perusing the holiday magazines, checking out the cookie recipes to see if there are any new ones that catch my fancy. I'm seriously disappointed with Better Homes and Gardens publica...

...guess that means I need to do a recap post soon! First off, let me put some more healing and calming vibes into the Universe for my friend Jane who is having surgery today. Everyone think good thoughts! My weekend report: I spent a good deal of Saturday cleaning out the closet in the Daughter's room. I managed to find a home in my craft armoire for most of my aromatherapy and soap supplies. It was a good thing I went through it as all of my base oils had gone bad. It had been too long since I last made any scrubs and they were pretty bad. One plastic bottle split as I was moving it into a basket so that was a little mess to clean up.  A lot of my herbs that were in plastic bags were goners, too.  I'm not as concerned about the herbs in plastic containers because I use them as additives to my soap. They are more for the exfoliating properties than scent - I depend on the essential oils for that. Anyway, the things I haven't found new homes for are the labeling suppli...