Sick days are for blogging

And sick days are for catching up with blogs too. My Bloglines feeds have been emptied out for the first time in months. Sorry that I haven't been liberal with comments but I'm barely coherent enough to post on my own blog. I've caught some sort of flu crud from Thing 1 and 2. They've had it since the weekend. I got bitch slapped with it yesterday. High fever and coughing and I sound like Lauren Baucall. Or Kathleen Turner. Or a person who's been chain smoking for 30 years. Sexy, huh?

So I thought that I'd catch up on your blogs and found that several of you are sick too. I guess misery loves company. Knitted socks abound in bloglandia. I need more Koigu before I knit anymore sockies. I've been sorely disappointed with other yarns and commit to only knitting socks with Koigu from now on. Thus the reason that some Lorna's Laces Shepard sock yarn went from being socks to these loverlies (hope you don't mind but some of the pictures were taken whilst I'm in bed today):

Mrs. Beeton's Wristwarmers





Perfect for using up bits of luxury yarns and adding beautiful beaded enhancements. The blue pair uses a beautiful variagated laceweight mohair/silk (whose ball band is long gone but I remember it being Italian), LL sock yarn and some laceweight cashmere reclaimed from a thrift store sweater last fall. The second pair are made with some of my handspun silk and mohair and the same cashmere. So soft, so decadent. I.Love.These.

I'm knitting like crazy through my stash so that I have some goodies to take to Spring Bada Bing. My plan is to bring felted tote bags, monkeys, some spring ponchos, felted flowers and some felting kits. I was crankin' stuff out like crazy until I got sick. Bummer. Here are a couple of ponchitos as I'm calling them. They're not big ol ponchos and are just enough to cover your shoulders during cool Spring and Summer nights.





The brown one is Patons Divine, Bernat Boucle and an angora silk blend reclaimed from a sweater this fall. The pink and green one uses the Knit Happens colorway of LL Shepard sock yarn and pink Manos. When I'm feeling better, I'll try to get an action shot that will do them better justice.

And here are a few forgotten FOs:

Felted Guinea Pig bed (the piggies fought over who would get to sleep in this all Winter)



I used Galway and Lion Brand Fun fur and modified a felted kitty bed pattern.

Buttonhole Bag with flower for my CA now NC best bud



I modified the pattern by simply knitting a narrow rectangle for the base and picked up the stitches to knit in the round. I also knit a few extra rows at the top for a sturdier handle (my friend wanted a bag that looked like the one on the cover of the Fall 05 Spin Off). I think I used two or three skeins of Knit Picks WOTA.

Black Fifi Bag which was an auction donation for Fat Tuesday



This Fifi (my original pattern) was my first felting project with Patons Classic Merino and I love felting with it. I used black for the body and grey for the base and bottom stranded with Lion Brand Fun Fur.

Blue Sky Sportweight Baby Alpaca scarf in eggplant and fuschia - YUM!



I bought this yarn on my first trip to the Yarn Lounge in Carytown/Richmond VA in January. I bought it just in time to be snowed in all weekend with nothing to do but knit. The pattern is Blue Sky Alpaca's easy knit scarf. I ended up knitting it on size 4s which took forever but I like the resulting shadow knit style. And even better, its MINE all MINE!

Recycled Felted Fair Isle bag



This tote was constructed from a beautiful but worn out Lands End vest. I felt like I was cheating when I made it because I didn't knit it - oh the horror!. But I love how it turned out. I even have some panels left to make a couple of little totes.

There are also some prototypes fresh off the needles that I'll show when they're in a more presentable form. Someone send me a few shots of bourbon or tequila to put me out of my misery. Blech...

Balancing Act

My mantra for 2006 - and quite possibly for the rest of my life now - is balance. If there's one thing I've learned in my 36 years on earth is that everything hinges on this one delicate aspect. Have I acheived it since the beginning of the year? Sure I have. I find balance where my breathing is quiet and centered, my body is relaxed and I am one with myself and the world. And in the next instance, the kids are pouncing on me with requests and expectations and the scales tip out of sync again. Balance is a moment by moment chore and in all honesty, its hard work. But what I've realized as of late is that I can either throw a fit about trying to keep the scales even or I can allow the universe and Creator to tip them in one direction or the other from time to time and go with the flow. Trust me, going with the flow is MUCH easier.

I say all of this because in my quest for balance, it appears that I'm out of sync with some aspects of my life when in fact I'm going with the flow. I haven't been blogging in some time because I've been wonderfully busy with other aspects of my life. I did want to give you a quick update and hopefully some fibery good pictures (coming soon) so you can be assured that all is well. I miss bloglandia more than you know and cherish the quick snippets of time I get to visit your blogs even though I don't always get a chance to comment. So many of you are like my extended family and I miss catching up with you.

First of all, many thanks for your comments, compliments and emails about the fortune cookies. They have truly been fun to make and I'm glad that others have enjoyed them too. I've been busy knitting though up until recently, I was working on commissioned tote bags and not a lot of "me" knitting. I was recently accepted into the Richmond Craft Mafia's Spring Bada Bing craft show so I'm knitting through my stash for that right now. If you're in the area on April 22nd, stop by and say "HI!" I've spun just a little bit and hope that will change too in the coming weeks. I've been getting my house in order in anticipation of spring - lots of cleaning and dusting. I am so glad that I made it through the Winter with very minor SAD issues - yippie! I used a full spectrum light periodically thanks to your many suggestions and I really believe that it helped me through some of the rough spots. The Things are doing well and are growing like crazy. King Thing has been exceptionally attentive in recent weeks. We've been blessed with an abundance of friends and love. My plants including my orchids are all blooming. Life.Is.Good!

I hope that life is just as good for all of you too. I keep you in my thoughts and prayers especially those of you dealing with the curves that life throws at us. My heart aches for our world as so many horrible things keep happening. But I also find beauty and love and peace in each moment - a chirp of a bird, the wind whistling through my hair, the sun on my cheek. Enjoy each moment and in it you too will find balance.