Russell Yarn

I've Been to the Promised Land!

Happy Belated Fourth of July to everyone!  As I do every year, I made the road trip down to my parents' home in Kentucky...but unlike every single other year I didn't bring the Russells!  I can't even begin to tell you what a wonderful restful relaxing vacation has resulted, since JP (who had to work, of course) agreed that Mama had earned a vacation away from the furballs.  Result: I got to visit with friends in Lexington!  I got to take a leisurely tour of the Liquor Barn on Harrodsburg Road!  (Seriously, I LOOOOOVE Liquor Barn for their wine selection AND liquor is MUCH cheaper than in Michigan!)  I got to have father-daughter bonding time at the shooting range!  And best of all...I got to go here:

The Woolery.  Y'know, Mecca for spinners and weavers?  They who I bought Furthur the Hitchhiker from a few years ago?  They moved to Frankfort, KY earlier this year, which placed them within an hour's road trip of my parents' home!  So today, off my mom and I went, and YES, it was everything it's made out to be!!!  I haven't bought fiber since I don't know when, but today I definitely fell off the wagon.

My mom checking out a Dorothy Loom.

Spindles ahoy!

Oooooooh.......

One of the loom corners.  Weaving is one fiber art that I don't enjoy, but I get the feeling my mom will have a floor loom before I come back down here again.  My dad is resigned to this fact (as he should be).

Kinda makes you want to rip off your clothes and run frolicking through the aisles, doesn't it?  Or is that just me?

The end of the Fiber Mile and beginning of Dyes 'R Us.  So. Much. Pretty.

So what did I bring home?  (Not a wheel, sadly.  Three plus a spindle is enough for now.)

These names absolutely cracked me up, but are super-soft...50% angora, 20% merino, 20% tussah silk, and 10% alpaca. 

It doesn't get much softer than this!  Although...can someone explain to me how a Russell hair got in there five seconds after I opened it when they're over 400 miles away?  Gah!

Camel down, which I had to have because I've never spun it before (I love exotic stuff!).  It's very fluffy.

100% soy silk, of which I own some and have spun a little.  But really, I bought it for the label...it's called Happy Hippie in the Haight Ashbury colorway.  Gotta have it!!!

And because I love a challenge...one pound of stinky raw merino.  And I do mean STINKY...fresh off the sheep!  Looks like I'll put those long-neglected hand cards to use!

My only disappointment was that I was looking specifically for local fiber, something I love to do on any roadtrip...it's my favorite souvenir.  None of the super-crunchy-looking fiber was labeled with where it came from (as opposed to Heritage Spinning and Weaving, which tells you not only the farm but oftentimes the name of the sheep!).  Some of them had blue ribbons from Maryland Sheep and Wool...but still, no farm names or anything like that.  There is really only a token amount of straight knitting stuff (needles, commercial yarn, etc.), but there are a TON of books (including damaged books on sale), and spinning and weaving supplies out the wazoo.

All in all, however, the employees were super-friendly and helpful, wanted to hear all about my drive down from Michigan, what I like to spin and knit, etc.  Definitely worth the roadtrip...if you're coming down I-75, it's a quick side-trip down I-64 just north of Lexington. Definitely check it out!!!

Although...to my shame I did not think to take a "Roaming Julip Bags" picture out front.  This may necessitate a return trip.

Aaaaand...She's Free

Today was the last day at the EDJ.  I am elated, I am excited, and yeah there's some fear mixed in there too.  Cutting the tie to the EDJ means cutting a tie to what I went to school for, what I'm licensed for, what I've been doing for the past nine years, a very large part of my identity.  NO I'm not having regret, just reflection on what I've done and what I will do.  But as the wise and wonderful Dana pointed out to me today, "You're moving forward.  All of that education, experience, and life changes will determine who you become in the next chapter of your career.  No sadness, just be grateful for all you get to take with you."  Yes, that is a verbatim quote.  Doesn't she rock?  I'm thinking about printing that out and framing it, myself.

We won't go into how much COBRA will cost us, that little factoid was just casually sprung on me during the exit interview.  Suffice to say, we're looking at other options.

Today as I was listening to my "Bubblegum Oldies" station on Pandora, "5 O'Clock World" by The Vogues came on, and for some bizarre reason the lyrics really struck me as Prophetic and Appropriate ("But its a five oclock world when the whistle blows/No one owns a piece of my time/And theres a five oclock me inside my clothes/Thinkin that the world looks fine, yeah") so I ended up singing/howling it very loudly.  My belated apologies to my (former) coworkers. 

Finally, for those of you who've been around since then, remember this?  (Oh, and I had to check my archives to get the exact post, which reminded me that I've been blogging since August '05!  Damn!)  Well, let me just say this.  Screw me, you will face my wrath.  Screw someone I love, and I will quite seriously cut your balls off whilst smiling and singing Bubblegum Oldies.  And although I may not have more "free time" after today, I do have a more "flexible schedule."  Consider yourself forewarned, I still have many many pointy needles.

It's 2009 Already?!?!?

Today as I was catching up on all my blog reading, I enjoyed reviewing all the wonderful things that seemed to coincide with the new year for my blog-friends...such as new arrivals, whether they be two-legged or four...incredible goals for peeps who can definitely achieve them...big moves and even a new/old lover for a certain someone who will kill me dead if I post a link to her blog here, so I guess I'd better not.

I'm optimistic for 2009 for a lot of reasons, primarily for that age-old "it can only get better from here!" cliche.  There's a lot of stuff I don't post on my blog, first off because I know you all don't read this blog for Downer of the Week news, but also because I'm a very private person and don't like sharing a lot of really personal stuff with the world-wide-web. 

That said, I do have some hopes/dreams/resolutions for 2009:

1. Eat well.
2. Live well.
3. Destress.

I don't think I'm going to make it much more specific or put too much more pressure on myself than that, y'know? 

I do have some very specific plans, though:

Oh yes Lily will be a fiber artist, oh yes. 

Can't you just see how she's trying to work that wheel, even though it's taller than she is?  Someone to bequeath my wheels, fiber and yarn to someday, yes?

And when it comes to Julip Bags...I'm thinking that I may wrangle my niece Gabby into being a Julip apprentice.  After all, the one bummer (hah!) about being CFBC is that there's no one to pass the family business on to (if they're willing, that is, and those are pretty long odds to pin your hopes on), but I think it's ten times better when someone actually appears INTERESTED in your microenterprise, as opposed to being born into it.  No pressure, Gab!

Speaking of Julip Bags, I think I have more hopes/dreams/resolutions for it than I do for myself personally.  There are two new limited edition lines coming out within the next month, two new bag designs, and hopefully things will keep growing!

There Be Yarn Here!

We have a new member of the household!  Please meet...

Well, she doesn't have a name yet, any suggestions?  Joann.com had these dress forms 50% off over the Thanksgiving holiday, and with a free shipping coupon I couldn't pass it up!

The Russells aren't quite as enthusiastic...

Especially Jerry, who was scared of her at first.  Mickey is just annoyed because we keep trying to stuff him in the box she came in (to be sent to Abu-Dhabi, naturally).  But doesn't she look stylish in her Nantucket Jacket, with a Hannah Bag over her shoulder?!?

I finally have some live-action model shots of Anice...

JP's grandmother passed away last Monday, and I wore Anice for the first time to the funeral.  She will be missed very very much, but she managed to raise a pretty fantastic family in her long, rich lifetime.

Knitting: to break Unnamed-Dress-Form in, I'm going to be knitting this scrumptious smooshy yarn:

Bristol Yarn Gallery's "Ashton" - 50% baby alpaca, 40% merino, 10% silk

Into Slinky Ribs, from Custom Knits!  Viva la Sexy!

Finally, tomorrow marks the day, six years ago, when JP and I stood up in front of God and our families, promising to have and to hold through better (Russells! Home ownership! New businesses! Other people's babies!) and through worse (Job loss! Illness! Leaky rooves! Never enough money!).  I'm still boggled it's been six years, it seems like it was just yesterday, but I still love my husband very much, and can't wait to see what the next six years hold!  Happy Anniversary Amby and JP!

Babies, Bunnies, and Lambs, Oh My!

Shoot, sounds like Easter around here or something, huh?

Yesterday we drove over to my brother's to see my parents off on their trip home to Kentucky.  It's always wonderful when I can see so much of my family together, especially this little one:

She's the sweetest, prettiest almost-one-year-old I've ever seen!  And she loves her Aunt Amby, but I think she loves her Uncle JP just a little bit more...she absolutely adores him!

From my brother's, JP and I drove up to Romeo for the Sheep and Wool Festival at Mt. Bruce Station.  We really only went so JP could get his "happy lamb" (more on that in a minute), and believe it or not, I didn't buy a single thing.  Not an ounce of fiber, not a skein of yarn, not even a babydoll sheep (although I'm sorely tempted every year).  We did check out Wiley's Woolies, who had a bunny just sittin' and chillin' out front, no cage or anything.

I would LOVE to have a nice fluffy bunny to hug and squeeze and pluck fiber from, but somehow I think the Russells might view it as lunch.  We also caught my favorite event, the shepherding demonstration:

...and laughed at the fact that although every year, the farm puts up more and more warning signs, there were still people grabbing/leaning up against the electric fence and getting zapped.  I'm willing to bet in a year or two we'll have to sign a waiver to get in, stating Mt. Bruce Station is not responsible if you're too dumb to realize electric fences will, y'know, SHOCK YOU. 

And yes, JP got his two racks of happy lamb, which is the only kind of lamb I'll eat.  They were pasture-raised and grain-fed before meeting their end, which makes me feel a little better about eating baby anything.  So that night we had our annual Happy Lamb Dinner:

Grilled whole rack of baby lamb with scallion potato cakes and satueed spaghetti squash, accompanied by one of JP's precious bottles of 2005 Kosta Brown pinot noir. 

Finally, I was notified by the fabulous Nia that the Julip Bags Gabrielle Lace Keeper was named by Jess (the co-founder of Ravelry!) as one of her favorite knitting items on Etsy!  Wow! 

Happy 4th! (A Little Late)

Just got back from a nice extended holiday weekend at my parents' home in Kentucky...I knit a lot, chilled a lot, and JP fished a lot.  The Russells were Russells a lot.  I'll share more in the days to come, but first and foremost...

Anice is finally finished!!!  Not blocked yet since the humidity would mean a three-day drying time, but I'll probably do it later this week or this weekend, and then there will be lovely pics!

The seven-and-a-half hour drive back was the most eventful we've had in a while...first, after leaving my parents', we witnessed a car bursting into flames while driving into Lexington (meaning, the flaming car was driving too.  Scary!)  Then a semi truck's tire exploded in front of us in between Cincinnati and Dayton. 

North of Sydney (about midway through Ohio on I-75) we started noticing that the skies were getting ominously black off to our left (west).  I sped up a little, figuring we could outrun an ugly-looking rainstorm.  JP kept eyeballing it, until finally he said "Um, I think we need to get out of here."  I asked why, and he said "Because there's a funnel cloud over there." 

And sure enough, there was.

No, I did not take pics for the blog.  I was too busy zipping up the windows and flooring the stealth hybrid, stubbornly joining a semi convoy while all the other cars pulled over.  We managed to outrun a potential tornado (and yes I'm from the school that refuses to "pull over and hide in a ditch") but had another three hours of storm to swim through.  So I'm a bit tuckered.

Now I'm relaxing in front of the laptop, catching up on e-mails, blog comments, and Julip Bags orders.  Hopefully I'll have replied to everyone by this time tomorrow!!!

Merry Christmas!

(La la la la laaaaa....)

On the evening of Christmas Day at Casa Kentucky we have...
One groovy iguana (named Igor, property of sister and BiL)

One pissed off cat (named Scrappy, belonging to my parents and banished to the garage)

One baffled Yorkie (named Beau, belonging to my parents and wishing the Russells would go home)

One wimpy Jerry (being comforted by my sister)

And one bloodthirsty Mickey (who wants to eat both the cat and lizard)!!!

(Notice the licking of chops)

Oh, and there may have been some of me target shooting a .45 automatic pistol...I don't have pictures, but I do have the sore wrists to prove it!!!

 

Merry Christmas to all, four-footed and two!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Holy cow, I have officially commited the blog sin of not posting in exactly a month!  Damn!  Well at least I have a ton to tell you, so settle back with your drink of choice and let the updates begin!

First off, this blog post is coming to you from my new Dell Vostro laptop, bought specifically for Etsy shop purposes.  Dell has a small business package, and the price was right, AND I already have wireless internet in the house thanks to my DSL router, so at home I can hang out with JP in the living room and still work.  I can take it to my day job and utilize our wireless campus.  And best of all, when I'm here by myself, I can monitor Russell behavior which is something like this when they're under my eye:

They're not supposed to be on the couch, but it's preferable to evil stealth Russell behavior, such as silently snuffling through the garbage or ripping the tags off shirts in piles of sorted laundry.

And um, speaking of laundry...another reason I've been MIA is because I hurt my back pretty badly two weeks ago.  I was sitting on the floor, sorting laundry, when I started to get up and my back completely went out.  Lying on the floor in excruciating pain, unable to get up, with a panicky Mickey barking in my ear, was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life.  I hurt my back about four years ago, but oh, nothing like this.  Thankfully JP got home from work about 45 minutes later and took me to the hospital, where they did absolutely nothing except shoot me up on massive doses of Dilatid and Valium.  I opted to go home and wait until I could see my PCP thirty-six hours later, where he told me I'd rotated my sacroiliac joint out of place and it had been pinching the nerves in my lower back for ALMOST TWO DAYS.  Thankfully he was able to get the joint back into place, and I've been trying to take it easy, but I apparently strained it yesterday, because I'm back in pain and trying to not push it today. 

Because I'm not enough of a glutton for punishment, I also tried to fillet my finger with one of JP's French knives while washing dishes on Thanksgiving Day, AND I dragged the passenger side door of my poor hybrid against a concrete light pole base, which has resulted in massive body damage to my car which is going to cost a shitload to repair.  Fun times!

NOW that I've got all the depressing news out of the way, how about some happy stuff?  Such as a *drumroll please* finished Nantucket Jacket!  Finished just in time for my family's Thanksgiving Dinner, hosted at my home!

There are more pics and specs over at the Finished Objects blog and on Ravelry.  I'm pretty happy with it overall, although I'm thinking about blocking it again and trying to stretch it out just a wee bit more.

More happy news: I am a shameless bag whore (oh wait, that's not news!).

I completely blame love Bridget for this, since I scored it at a discount at the HYAW Shop Hop.  It's the Lady B from Lexie Barnes in Bali Hai, I have the Flo bag in this pattern, and although I was afraid I might have buyer's remorse, I definitely don't.  This thing easily holds several knitting projects, including all the pieces of a sweater-in-progress, and the front pocket neatly contains books and patterns.  And while I"m coming completely clean about bag buys:

It's the Amy Butler Creativity Bag, scored at 50% off on joann.com.  It is a PERFECT laptop bag, so that's what I'm using it for right now.

So what's on the needles now?  How about the Midwest Moonlight Scarf from Scarf Style?

Nice easy mindless knitting, along with a pair of socks for JP. 

Finally, some Julip Bags news...I'm working on a separate homepage for the business, and when it's finished, the Etsy site will be more of a final destination and checkout, whereas the homepage will be complete with extra pics, tools, and links!   I fell in love with Frontpage as a website builder when I had my wedding photography business, so I can't wait to get to tinkering!

Back on board...

This past week has seen very little crafting, business or otherwise, with the hustle and bustle of Lily's birth, and then with family arriving, etc.  So today, when JP left for work, I cleaned up Ye Olde Sweatshoppe and got to work cutting out pieces.  After an hour of cutting, I've got a nice stack to sew up today.

Four dog bags and five or six sock bags.  One of the Golden Rules of Etsy is that you shouldn't list all your stuff at once, even if you're good to go with pics, descriptions, etc.  The rationale is that spreading out your listings keeps you near the top of the category lists (where the most recently-listed on are top) and therefore increases your exposure.  I say screw that...the categories I'm listing in have a TON of activity and you're buried pretty quick anyway.  Plus, I don't have time to list a new item each day of the work week...lately I've been lucky if I get to take a lunch.  So look for a BIG update tomorrow!

I've also been asked if I'm planning on including any new designs in the shop, and the answer is Of Course!  But right now what I have in there is selling quite well, and is my bread and butter to build up to other stuff. 

Here's another thing I'm working on...the last bit of the Nantucket Jacket:

When did a sleeve get to be so looooong?!?

Finally, how 'bout another Lily picture? 

This is my mom holding her first grandchild...evidently her granddogs have been shuffled down the line since this one's arrival.  Poor Jerry and Mickey.  Speaking of whom...I'm going to buy some baby blankets from Target, give them to Lily, and have Katie and my brother return them unwashed so I can get the pups used to her smell.  We honestly don't know how they'll react to a baby since (as far as we know) they've never been around one.  Jerry doesn't like little kids, but readily hides under the coffee table to get away and only gets growly if they corner him.  Mickey loves little kids, but he has serious jealousy issues with Ozzy, my Cabbage Patch baby/handknits model.  I'm not taking any chances on the LIVE baby, so don't get worried and call the men in white coats if you come visit and find me snuggling and rocking Ozzy...we're just preppin' the pups.

Here she is!

Lily Rose made her appearance at approximately 11:30 this morning, 8lbs and 19 inches.  Mom and baby are both doing great!!!  And so is Aunt Amby, who tried in vain to finish pink Ugg baby booties before Lily arrived!!!