Livin' La Needle Loca

...I know, I know. It's been a week since I last posted. The last day at work proved to be surprisingly emotional. I'd been with the company for 26.5 years. It's hard to leave people that you've worked with for over 20 years. I was a mess when I got home and pretty much collapsed on the couch in a puddle.The Husband made sangria and I toasted my [work] friends. I spent the weekend finishing things up for Christmas. I finished the Christmas tree skirt and put it under the tree. It needs some adjustments, but I'm not going to worry about it until after Christmas. Then I wrapped all of my Christmas gifts and got them under the tree! I did a little shopping for stocking stuffers and a couple of gift certificates. I spent the majority of the weekend trying to fit all of the stuff I brought from my office into my studio. I assembled the two-drawer filing cabinet that I ordered and promptly filled it with files from work, and from various hiding places in my ...

...but the reality is that I might not be able to until I retire (!) at the end of the year. Work is busy-busy, as it always when I'm running open enrollment. This year, I am also training my replacement, so more tasks to add to the mix. I actually managed to finish something! I took photos of it and a couple of other things. Here's a look at the Phat Fiber sampler I finished in October. This is Ancient Egypt [ Ravelry ]: Specs: Started 10/5/19 Finished 10/26/19 Ancient Egypt Phat Fiber box, October 2014 Yardage and weights not measured Here is my latest finish. This is Ghost Rider handspun [ Ravelry ]: and the close-up: Specs: Started 10/12/19 Finished 11/8/19 Merino-Silk (4.0 oz.) from Greenwood Fiberworks 323.8 yds. 2-ply, 16 WPI I started this simple quilt in October. It's called Mermaid Happiness, after the name of the fabric panel I'm using. This photo shows it before I started pinning the quilt sandwich. I am currently in the...

...man, I am falling down on the blog-job! There are simply too many things going on at work and at home. Work is super-busy and I'm just trying to keep up. By the end of the day, I am zonked and have no great interest in working on crafts. I didn't work on anything over the weekend except my studio. The Husband and I went to Target on Friday and bought a new 9-cube unit to replace two old bookcase units. The units came out of my daughter's room eons ago and are like 10 years old. They didn't work any more. I was able to repurpose  a 2-cube unit for now, but eventually, it will have to go, too. After looking at all the desktop options out there, we decided to make our own from a piece of white melamine board the Husband bought at Home Depot. He cut the board to the right length and width and I painted the cut edge that shows. I now have a custom top that will work for my computers! Adding the desktop and the new cube unit meant that I had to rearrange and consol...

...Happy May! We have a few things going in the garden. Our lone cherry is ripening: We also had some mulberries, but the birds have already eaten them. We still have a few Icelandic poppies: And the occasional calendula: In the last week, an amaryllis plant has bloomed. These flowers are huge: Up this weekend: Our company's holiday party is Saturday. We're a little later than usual this year because the office move in January set us back a bit. Our theme is Disney and I'm making cupcakes in the 101 Dalmatians theme. I'm using white cake with mini-chocolate chips and white icing with (I hope) paw prints on top. If I can't get the paw prints to work, I'll just use chocolate chips as spots. Sunday is Mother's Day and I've asked to spend the day in my studio. I want to warp my new loom! .

...and am I ready for the weekend, even the abbreviated one I'll have. First the photos. Some lemon blossoms: Orange rose: Asian pear blossoms: and yesterday's sunrise: Up this weekend: Our company party is tomorrow night, so I need to do a little baking. Our theme this year is "Tardis in the Tearoom: Doctor Who visits Downton Abbey." I am making a blueberry trifle. I don't have a bowl shaped like a tardis, so the blueberries will just have to stand in for the tardis. It also helps that the company color is blue. ;-) I need to bake the sponge cake, make the pastry creme, whip the whipping cream, and potentially make lemon curd.  The curd will come off the table if I run out of time; I'm considering skipping the alcohol as well. I have a combination of fresh and frozen blueberries, plus some frozen blackberries to add a little more berry-ness to the mix. I'm not that fond of blueberries, so the addition of the blackberries is for ...

...it's been a week!  I've had a ton of work and very little time to breathe!  I did manage to take some eye candy pictures this morning. The sunrise: The fava beans are starting up again: and the cherry tree went wild with blossoms: A week ago, I bought myself a dozen tulips and kept them on my desk at work. Here's the last of them: Up this weekend: Our company holiday party is tomorrow. For the comfort food theme, I'm making pineapple upside down cake. I need to track down a couple of white elephant gifts to take, too.It should be a lot of fun. Most of our employees work from home or at client sites, so company parties are one of the few chances we get to see each other. On Sunday, I'd love to do something crafty. It's been such a busy week that I've been late getting home every night and I haven't knit at all. I even skipped craft night on Tuesday because of work. Sleep would be good, too! .

...because I'm working on a big client deadline.  Yes, I know I missed Eye Candy Friday.  If you're a Facebook friend, you saw my pictures posted there. You can also see them in my Flickr photostream . Gotta jet! .

...thank goodness for Eye Candy Friday!  This sunrise this morning was glowing: The plants and trees definitely has spring in mind. The apricot trees are blossoming: The tulips are emerging: Here's another: and the nectarine tree is starting to set buds: Work has settled down to it's normal level of busy. (Yay!)  The first 3 days of the week were insane...I'm still waiting for  final piece to be processed so I can verify it, but that is small compared to what I did the rest of the week. Up this weekend: It's a 3-day weekend!! We have Spin-In tomorrow, a great way to start the weekend. I need to give my wheel a little tune-up in the morning and make some sort of goodie to take. I only work 2 days next week, because I'm taking Thursday and Friday off for Stitches West!  I want to spend some time this weekend going through the vendor list and marking up my map. I need to do some stash diving to find yarn suitable for the weaving class that...

...that's all I have time for today.  Back when work settles down a little.

...it's back to work I go.  And I jumped in with both feet! When you know there's a project waiting for you to start,  you can't quite make a slow re-entry. I spent yesterday looking through my queued projects trying to figure out if I had all of the threads for the next needlepoint picture I want to do. And the answer is: not quite.  I need to check my floss stash to see if I already have some of the colors and I need to send an order for some specialty threads.In the meantime, I'll be working on one of my knitting WIPs. I can finally show you the part of Jane's gift I sent out with the cookies last week. Here is Jane's Chunky Mochi Hat: and the view from the top: Specs: Started 11/27/11; Finished 12/8/11; Pattern: Noro spiral one-skein hat by Manuèle Ducret; Yarn: Chunky Mochi in Caramel Latte I think it turned out pretty well. The pattern was pretty easy. However, it is written in free-form style, so it took a bit of getting used to. The ya...

...woo hoo!   Well, I'm posting only because I'm waiting for software to download or install on my new Windows PC. Adobe stuff takes a long time to download the EXE files and then a long time to get the patches. Between this and my Mac, I;ve been downloading and updating software for a week. My office looks like Computer Central and is a disaster area: (L-R: Windows laptop, iMac Mac Mini and monitor, stacks of software to install, and Windows 7 laptop and its monitor.) I can't wait to get back to some semblance or order and get my desk space back! I didn't get as much done over the weekend as I wanted. I just couldn't get motivated on Saturday. I ended up just doing laundry and doing a little housework. Mid afternoon, I gave up on the idea of quilting and decided to rescue a Merino-Angora top that had felted a little. I managed to get the majority of it drafted and then spun it on the wheel. I had already spun some on the spindle, but decided that faster and ...

...I'm in the middle of transferring my applications, files, and photos from one work Mac to a new one. It's taking longer than I expected only because some applications have to be deactivated on the old Mac and "repaired" on the new Mac (Gee thanks, Adobe...) and  my essential applications is working correctly. I hope to be back on a normal schedule tomorrow. .

...I managed to get my photos uploaded to Facebook and Flickr, but never made it to Blogger to post. Our company party was fun and, as usual, we had some very creative cooks and bakers.Here's what my Little Mermaid dessert looked like: The full set of pictures is on Flickr ...make sure to check out the Little Mermaid appetizer than another person made. It's fabulous! I also made a platter of lemon curd tarts (Queen of Hearts Tarts), but did not get a picture of them. They were OK...the lemon curd turned out very well, but I was disappointed in the cream cheese crust recipe I used. Back to Martha's crust recipe next time! I didn't get a lot accomplished on Sunday: grocery shopping, a little laundry, and not much elset. I did spend some time looking at the design of the wall hanging, but I was exhausted from the Saturday baking and party. I just knew if I tried to cut fabric and sew, I was going to mess it up. Much better to work on this project when I have more ...

...and yes, I missed yesterday's blog. [sigh] It seems that once I get to work, it's go go go until I leave. And then I'm too tired to do anything when I get home except eat dinner. So I totally missed blogging yesterday and this post going to be random and picture-less because I have a ton to do before the day is over. Made excellent progress on the commission quilt. All of the block units are sewn and I'm putting the rows together. Note to self: Rail Fence quilt...totally fast (and pretty) to make. Almost ready to do the toes on the Mochaberry Bramble socks. I tried very hard to finish them in February, but I kept falling asleep while knitting them. Finished spinning the February Spin-In yarn while watching the Oscars on Sunday. Haven't had time to take pictures or measure WPI yet. That's it for now... .

...because, of course, everyone wants me to finish their projects before I leave!   I worked on four different projects today and my mind is reeling. I spend more time opening the wrong project files than anything! Sorry for the blog-and-run. I can't see that it's going to get any better for a few days! It will be a relief to get on a plane Thursday...  

...this week just whizzed by! After a small lull on Tuesday, more work came surging back on Wednesday morning. I finally have a few minutes to catch my breath! Here's the picture I never got a chance to upload and post for WIP-it Wednesday: It's coming along. I'm still waiting for my order of turquoise silk. I hope it gets here soon! On to Eye Candy Friday. First up, a Mardi Gras rose from the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden: A huge tomato from the garden: And remember that melon picture I showed you at the end of August? Here it is, all grown up and ready to eat: This is a miniature honeydew of some unknown variety. Up this weekend: I haven't had enough time to make any plans! About the only thing I know for sure that we have to do is make plane and hotel reservations to go the Baltimore next month. The Daughter finished her dissertation and we're going to attend the part of her defense that is public.  It's been a lot of hard work for her an...

...because this week has gotten away from me!  Between the doctor's appointment on Monday and my day off tomorrow, I've had to cram a weeks worth of work in 3.5 days. Anyway here is the picture I promised: Thsi is a Merino-silk top from Redfish Dyeworks. It has a wonderful sheen and in general is a nice spin. I ran into a couple of problem areas, but the entire top is not like that. I'm going to wait until I spin the second bobbin to see whether it wants to be a 2-ply or 3-ply yarn. Up this weekend: An open class reunion for my high school tomorrow night. That should be fun! Then I'm going to visit Mom on Saturday.  I'll come back as early as I can on Sunday, to get the last few hours in with the Daughter. She's heading back to school on Monday. [sigh]

...I have nothing new to share and work is keeping me hopping. I haven't even had a chance to try out the new camera yet! I am within 5 rows of the end of the Reflection Shawl. I probably could add more to the length, but I think I'm ready to be done with it. I'll have leftover yarn, which I'll use for something where the color is not crucial. I'm ready to start another pair of socks! While I enjoyed the shawl pattern once I got a rhythm going, I much prefer socks...the rows are not nearly as long! I'm looking forward to my 2 sock classes on Saturday, so maybe I won't start a new pair until then. Tour de Fleece starts this weekend, too! I have chosen 4 fibers that I want to spin and I really want to finish the Merino-Silk that I started 2 (3?) Tours ago! The Daughter comes home tonight. Yay! I'm working on Monday so I can take Friday the 9th off and visit my mother for her 80th birthday. (I should probably start getting serious about a birthday gi...

...and it's Eye Candy Friday! First up, a tomato: The tomatoes are starting to form. This little one is about 1/2 inch in diameter. We have some larger ones as well. I'm really looking forward to fresh tomato salads! Our next door neighbor has a rose bush in his front yard that has beautiful orange blooms. I finally got a few pictures this morning. Here's one: I love the deep color of these roses. Up this weekend: work on my quilts, keep knitting on the Reflection Shawl and get some time at the spinning wheel. I plan on just doing stuff for me because next week things escalate for work and I will be too wiped out to do much after work. I'll be working at my client's office about half-time and then coming back to my own office to finish out the day. It will be a lot of driving around, a lot more than the 14-mile round trip I have right now. It's always a challenge working on-site because things are in different or strange places, I don't know wh...

...yeah, I didn't think that would fly. Had to try it, though! LOL! Monday got completely away from me. Between work and researching a personal project, time just slipped away. My personal project is designing a knit item for a friend of the family...the request came from the Daughter and I have to give it a decent try. See, it's a knitting design project and I'm not a [knit] designer. I'm an implementer. This project is way more than I am comfortable with, but I'm trying! If things go well, I'll post the results here. Over the weekend, I finished the Midnite Lava Flow yarn. I really love how this came out: Specs: Started: 3/6/10; Finished: 3/21/10; Merino-Wensleydale-Firestar batts from Lisa Souza; total weight approx. 4.8 oz. Spun and Navajo-plied on Lendrum DT wheel; 342 yards; WPI tbd I think it will look great as a scarf. At Spin-In, I started spinning Blue Lake Lily, a merino-bamboo top from Royale Hare: I am using the Faux-ro (Fake Noro) techni...