Help me celebrate my birthday!

*** Edited to add: Lookie, lookie. My felted fortune cookies are on the Craft Magazine blog. I'm almost famous!

I was awakened at 6 am by the Beatles "Its Your Birthday" courtesy of Thing 2. Oh it wasn't intentional. He just blasts the Beatles at all hours of the night and morning because they help him get back to sleep. Lucky me, right? But it was still a fun way to wake up even it he didn't plan it. By 7 am, the sun was rising over the mountains and I couldn't help but smile. It is quite a beautiful day to be alive.

So tonight at 9:16 pm, I'll be 37 years young. I gave myself a birthday treat of a Caramel macchiato and a cranberry orange scone from Starbucks and some applewood smoked bacon from Fresh Market. Yum! All my favorites and none of them good for me. Who cares, its my birthday and I can do what I want. Besides, this is the closest that I'll get for a celebration since we'll be schlepping Thing 1 and Thing 2 to Halloween socials all over the Valley tonight. The bummer about a Halloween birthday is that you don't really get to have a "regular" party. Oh well, I can think of worse things.

Wanna see something really scary?


Halloween 1979
Originally uploaded by indigomuse.

I know its a little fuzzy because its a picture of a picture but this is me and my brother on Halloween 1979. Doncha love my 'fro? I was Ms. America (for like the umteenth year in a row who knew that Vanessa Willams would beat me to being the first Black Ms. America.) and he was a dead sexy pirate. I laugh every time I look at it.

I've been showered with the blessings of friends for the last week. It actually started a month ago with Heaz taking me out to dinner when I was in the MD/DC area for work and surprising me with BUTTERCREAM ICING CUPCAKES! I was in heaven and have the pictures to prove it. You know you have the best friends in the world when they give you buttercream :) Thanks H! You really are the greatest.

The Things and I went to Halloscream at Busch Gardens two weeks ago and had a blast. In 30 years, I'd never been. The place was packed moreso than it is in the summer. And its all dressed up for Halloween. This is a pic of Thing 2 after one of the little shows Witchie Poo and Pumpkin too. He got to be a part of it and they're all saying the magic word he chose which was Lasagne.

Witchie Poo, Pumpkin and Thing 2
Originally uploaded by indigomuse.

Last Wed., my Fab Five knitting and spinning buddies took me to Petticoats and Petitfours for a delish lunch. And guess what it ended with? A tiny buttercream cake!

Buttercream Cupcake
Originally uploaded by indigomuse.

Yes, they love me and I know it. Right back at ya! These wonderful ladies saved me from some serious loneliness when I thought that I was the only knitter/spinner in this area. Y'all make me laugh til my sides ache the next day and fill my heart with such joy. Your friendship is the best gift I could have. Thanks!

My best bud Adri and family came up this weekend for some celebrating. This is what old people do to celebrate.


Sleeping beauties
Originally uploaded by indigomuse.

Yup, we eat and sleep while the kids tear the house down around us. But we're sleeping so we don't care. Adri made me an adorable apron and gave me some kitchen gadgets. I'm a sucker for gadgets.

Finally, a gratuitous knitting picture. Its a sneak peek of my final prototype of a project that I'm working on that will be sent off for test knitting soon. I'm loving these colors and the yarn in a major way. I can't wait until I can show you what I've been working on.

Double top secret knitting project
Originally uploaded by indigomuse.

Present Time, Present time, Open the Presents and See What's Inside

No presents yet but here's how you can help me celebrate my birthday. McGuyver and Ebayman (aka Mom and Dad) gave me lots o' moola for my birthday. I used to just spend the money on the kids and when they found out a few years ago, I got into mega trouble. So, now they want to SEE what I've bought as proof that I spent the money on myself. I've used the money for spinning, fiber, knitting and yarn for the last several (for example, I purchased my first Golding spindle and Arwen the spinning wheel in recent years). It is so hard for me to rationalize spending money on myself. Its that mom's guilt that plagues so many of us. It got me big time this weekend. So much so, I filled up a couple of online shopping carts and then cancelled before I placed the order :( I know that some of you out there who will remain nameless, have no problem spending money.

So, if you could spend a couple hundred dollars on something knitting or spinning related, what would you spend it on? Books, exotic yarns and fibers, kits, needles, something I haven't even thought of? Please include in your comments the specifics like names of yarns, fibers, gadgets, etc. and where you would buy it. I'll choose some prezzies for myself from your answers and the winners will get some goodies too.

The deadline for your answers is midnight Wednesday, Nov.1st EST.

I'm celebrating Samhain (pronounced Sow-win) this year in addition to Halloween, since I was made an honorary Celt by my friend Ellen's family last year. Supposedly, being born on Halloween means you're gifted with clairvoyance. Maybe I need to break out the Ouija board or do a little divination - LOL! Whatever you do to celebrate, have fun and be safe!

Fab Five (er Four) Friday

Two posts in one week - sound the alarm!

Happy birthday to Mr. LeBon Bon.



Still makes my heart swoon after all these years. He was my first celebrity crush. My boy is a tad bit older than moi but our birthdays are a mere few days apart. I've got four more days until I hit the big 37. I'm careening toward 40. Yikes!

In other Duran Duran news, Andy Taylor announced that he was leaving the band yesterday :( Thus the reason why its now a Fab Four Friday. I can't believe that they were still together after so many years. I know they're not like the Stones or Beatles but they certainly ushered in a new genre of music in our pop culture. Ah, nothing like a trip down memory lane.
No don't say a prayer for meeee noowwwww. Save it til the morning after.....

Fall hit my hood this week. Check out this beauty in my backyard. Sandy would have enjoyed the fluffy white and blue sky. I know that I did.


Fall in SW VA 2006
Originally uploaded by indigomuse.

Speaking of my hood, go give a shout out to one of my real world knitting/spinning friends, Robin. She's celebrating her first year in bloglandia. Happy first, Robin! She's having a contest that you can enter too. I know she has some treats to share if you win.

What I did this summer #27 - Mason Dixon Warsh rags


Mason Dixon Warsh rag
Originally uploaded by indigomuse.

Yup, I was a joiner even if it was for a short while. Shhhh, don't tell anyone. I saw these cuties and was absolutely mesmerized. I made a couple of regular ones and then took some stupid pills and decided to make one on the diagonal. And then lost it somewhere in the pile of finished objects. If I find it, take a picture cause its a beauty. Took me four hours on one of many road trips to not only figure out how to work the increases and keep it in pattern. These were made with good ole cotton and with the exception of the one I lost, they've been a staple in my kitchen.

BTW, acrylic yarn doesn't felt. All I'm sayin'. Most of you are saying "Duh" right now. Duh, I knew that alrady too. Let's just say I must have had a couple of out of body experiences this week. Someday, I'll show you what happened. I'm gonna blame it on mega PMS.

Cloudy with a chance of ...WTF?

Woke up yesterday to the weather forecast - "cloudy today with a chance of snow". S.N.O.W. WTF? Now I know I live in the mountains and yes it can get cold but snow in October is just plain crazy. Let's hope that this isn't a sign of what the winter has in store for us in SW Virginia. I love a few snow days but I don't want to get socked in for days on end. Nothing like a little Monday bitchin' to start the week off right. Don't even get me started about Blogger on Friday. Oy!

Anyhoo, after many attempts, I gave up on trying to post on Friday. I love technology. I hate technology. Just depends on the day. Finally, some pictures for ya since I've been a bad blogger.

What I did this summer #44 - Made a shawl for my best friend's daughter

It was for both her 5th birthday and her christening. I used the Knitty pattern "Tie One On" and added various modifications to make it smaller. I'm happy to post the mods but would like to have one or two people test knit it first. Any takers? If so, drop me an email.

Miri hates wool so I wasn't sure she'd even consider wearing it (I used Cascade Indulgence for a small portion of it). But she loved it and prissed around in it. She's the only little girl I get to knit for so I truly enjoyed the change of pace from knitting for boys. Below are pictures of the shawl, a close up of the loom bloom pin and Miri wearing it to her special day. The Weavette is too fun for words. I see doing more with it in the future and perhaps I'll get a larger one.


Miri's Shawl
Originally uploaded by indigomuse.

Miri's Shawl

Materials
Body of Shawl - (1 skein) Cascade Indulgence and (2 skeins) Aunt Lydia's New Wave Crochet
Shawl Flower pin - Blue Sky Alpaca Silk and clear seed beads
4" Weavette loom
Needles - Denise Sizes 5, 8 and 15
Time - not sure but probably 6 - 7 hours including the weavette flower pin

Finished size
I'll have to dig those up but it fit a very petite five year old with a bit of grow room

Notes
Overall, this pattern was fun to knit and wasn't the least bit fidgety. It's a good project for a quick gift.


Shawl Pin Close-up
Originally uploaded by indigomuse.

Miri's Christening
Originally uploaded by indigomuse.

As for the here and now, there is much knitting in la casita de Muse. I hit a brick wall for most of the month of September and then had a burst of creativity over the last week or so. I've been working on some patterns and might have a couple ready in the next few weeks. If you've expressed an interest in testing knitting for me in the past, please send me an email. I'm putting a contact list together for future reference.

You'll probably see more pictures than long written posts in the immediate future. I'm enjoying reading your posts, comments and of course seeing all of your inspiring knits. Happy spinning and knitting :)

101 Things I Did on Summer Vacation

Does anyone remember having to write about your summer vacation when you went back to school in September? I remember writing about lazy days by the pool, hooking up with friends, sweltering hot but fun practices at band camp (yeah, don't start with the jokes) and otherwise being bored to tears. Long gone are those days where the most one had to worry about was putting on sunscreen. Hell, I'm sure that I didn't even WEAR sunscreen back then.

Alas, this summer hearkened back to those days of yore. While I now have to worry about a crapload more than I did when I was 16 (like making sure that ALL of the Things are wearing sunscreen), Summer 06 was the stuff that dreams are made of.

I'm having a "Life Comes At You Fast" kinda September so my plan is to slowly climb back on the blogging wagon in the coming weeks. I just logged into Bloglines for the first time in three months today and was completely blown away by the number of posts since I read anything last. I'm sure that I missed some significant events in people's lives and that makes me sad. Y'all are like the big family that I never had and while I wanted to keep up, I had to focus for a few months. But things are settling into a weird, Twilight Zone kind of routine. The Things get up when the alarm clock goes off in the morning, there are no fights over the bathroom or what to pack for lunch, homework is completed with little or no whining and we've been to school on time every day this month. I keep waiting for Rod Serling to pop out of a closet and narrate these strange occurrences 'cause its too good to be true.

While I'm excited about my favorite season - FALL - starting in just a couple of days, I'm truly sad to see summer go. King Thing and I are already trying to figure out where we could live so that we'd have access to eternal summer ((((sigh)))). When I have a spare moment (which aren't too plentiful these days), I'll post pictures and regale you with stories of sun and fun. And of course, there's plenty of knitting peppered in there too. I need your help though. Here's the deal:

* I have 101 things to share about Summer 2006 and they're numbered from 1-101 in a spreadsheet in random order (not by order of my favorite to least favorite).

* I'll tell you about 2 activities in each post

* The first two people to post in the comments section for that day with their requested number gets to choose what I post about in the next post.

Why bother, you ask? Well, you get to hear me blither on and on (hey, you guys asked me to start posting again) and I don't have to think about what order to tell my little summer stories. Any questions? Good. Let me pick one to start off with...

# 57 - Went to a Violent Femmes concert in Virginia Beach with Thing 1


So Thing 1 thought that it would be fun to go to a big concert on the beach. As luck would have it, The Violent Femmes were playing at the East Coast Surfing Championships while we were in town. A quick trek to the VA Beach Oceanfront and we were set. The opening band - Jackmove - was kickass awesome. We were stoked for the Femmes and even maneuvered to the front of the stage. That was where it all ended. A word to the wise - If you're an aging, self proclaimed "Grandfather of Folk Punk", perhaps you should consider playing better, not louder. Other than "Blister in the Sun", the rest of their performance was very, very sad. They tried to over compensate by cranking the volume up seemingly after each song. Also sad were the drunk 40 and 50 somethings in the crowd, trying desperately to act hip and cool. Falling over drunk on little kids and innocent bystanders is not cool, people. I got a great clip on my phone of the woman Thing 1 and I dubbed "Skinny Drunk Lady" but can't figure out how to post it to the web. This drunk chick tried many times to weasel her way behind the stage, into the VIP section, wherever she wasn't supposed to be. She finally ended up next to us (yippie), flailing her cigarette and beer everywhere before nearly passing out on about eight of us. After 40 minutes and eardrums throbbing from standing in front of the speakers, we hightailed it outta there. All, Thing 1 could say is "man, I'm glad that you didn't have to pay for us to go to that concert"." Huh? Wha?" Is all I could say for two days thanks to the ringing in my ears.

Sounds like I didn't have fun, doesn't it? But really I had a blast. It was great to spend the day doing something that Thing 1 wanted to do. We ate lunch together, people watched (and laughed - especially at the drunk girl who ran into a telephone pole on her bike. Don't worry, she was okay otherwise we wouldn't have laughed at her) for hours and just "hung out." Even Skinny Drunk Girl couldn't ruin our fun. This summer, I reconnect with my boy first the first time in years. Maybe next time, we'll go see a good band of aging rockers like Metallica.

PS. In case you were wondering, like a dumbass I did take some knitting with me 'cause I thought that I could sit on the beach, watch the sunset and knit while Thing 1 wandered around at the surfing/skateboarding competition. I cowered in fear that one of the many drunk people would spill beer all over me and my knitting as they stumbled all around me. In their defense, I didn't realize until later that I'd plopped down in the middle of the beer/wine garden area. So no knitting pictures but the good news is that my knitting escaped without injury.

PSS - It may sound like everyone at the VA Beach oceanfront is drunk. That's NOT the case. Unfortunately, this event had a huge beer and wine garden and it seemed like people were determined to drink up every last drop. That's not usually the case as VB is VERY family friendly, there are lots of police on hand keeping the peace and we've rarely encountered intoxicated people down there in the past. Just my little tourism plug for my hometown.

Not dead yet

Okay, I've endured some ribbing from my cyber and in the flesh friends as of late. "Are you still alive? Would it kill you to post just once this summer?" Apparently some bloggers in Richmond thought that I had met my maker :) Not yet, I can assure you that I'm still alive. The equation for the summer that has ruled my life is:

Two boys out of school for the summer + work kicking my arse (in a good way though) + several vacation trips + "Groundhog Day" laundry, house cleaning and cooking = very little personal time (aka blogging, knitting, etc.)

I'll be back in the saddle again after Labor Day when school starts, life returns to a routine and I sadly bid farewell to one of the best summers ever. So hang in there. I'll have some real posts soon. Lots to catch up on. Lots of photos. Lots of stories to tell. But still no buttercream.

Buttercream Icing

I've been craving buttercream icing since September 2005. I've been on a mission to find the holy grail of buttercream for over six months now. I even made a batch of a Martha Stewart's boiled buttercream. Took 45 minutes to whip (45 minutes people) only to find that it wasn't what I've been craving. Its still frozen in a huge tub in my freezer. I want the real deal. I want something like this...



Damnit I want to eat my screen this looks so yummy. The stuff made from butter. Good quality wedding cake icing. Not the crap you can buy at Kroger or Food Lion on a cake. That stuff is 100% whipped shortening and it leaves your tongue basted in oil for weeks. No, I want the kind that you should apply liberally to your love handles, hips, thighs and boobs because that's where its going to land after you've eaten it. Real sugar and real butter and a delicious pound cake or cupcake too. Is that too much to ask? I guess so since I have yet to find a bakery in town that has some. I've tried to find some at the beach and in Richmond too with no luck though I KNOW that those areas have to have some. They're simply hiding it from me. Damn youse, damn youse all to hell. That whimpering you hear in the corner is just me. I'm slightly hormonal (okay, seriously hormonal) and am close to a nervous buttercream breakdown. Pardon the bitchiness and no stitchiness. I hope to return tomorrow with my regularly scheduled blog.

Spring Bada Bing - April 22nd!

Saturday, April 22nd is the 1st Annual Spring Bada Bing craft show that the Richmond Craft mafia is hosting (For more info, click the logo above). Like a crazy woman, I submitted an app and was accepted a little over a month ago. Now you do the math, that doesn't leave much time to crank out hand knit goodies -which is why I've been AWOL as of late. What was I thinking? Overacheiver that I tend to be, I don't have nearly as much as I wanted for the show but I think I'll have a decent booth. Anyhoo, if you're in the Richmond area, stop by and say "hi" (I'm FiberEvolution in booth #48). Or come by to mock me :)

And yes I'm a little late reporting on the Spring Fiber Festival. I met some of the most incredible people. The rain held off and there were some of the cutest animals all around. I met up with some of my "peeps" but forgot to take a picture. But I manage to remember to snap just a few festival pictures.

Sister Knitter, Jane, in her beautiful sweater.



We both snapped shots of each other. To see me, visit her blog. I managed to forget to snap a picture of Emmy but it was wonderful to see her again.

Cute little sheep who just wagged his little tail the entire time I pet him.



Loverly and very soft llamas. Or were they alpaca. I wish I could keep them straight in my head...



Hand spun sample of some gorgeous llama that I scored. A five pound bag for $5!!!! This stuff is beyond words. Its.So.Soft!




A demo of wet felting.




Last weekend, me and The Things hit Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. One word - CHURRO. Yum!!!! Busch Gardens was one of the first trips that King Thing and I took together when we first started dating (it was a school trip and we were all of 15 yrs old - that was 21 years ago).

This is King Thing and Thing 1 (with a rarely photographed smile) on the skyride to England. Yes, the chucklehead wore that wool hat around the park all day. In 80 degree weather. For the sake of being "cool". Go figure. I'll think twice about getting on the skyride again especially after the problems with the one in New York this week and especially because I'm afraid of heights.



This is the view of Busch Gardens from a bazillion feet up in the air. BG is presumably the most beautiful theme park in the world.



On Sunday, we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary and Easter sunrise service (had to get up at 5 am - yikes!) on the beach with my parents. Check out the sunrise that we were treated to. The Chesapeake Bay Bridge is in the background.



Been reading y'all's blogs and trying to catch up. After all of the craft show knitting is over, I hope to resume a more normal life. I have some patterns running around my head and some prototypes that I'm working on. Might need some test knitters in the coming weeks and I hope to have some finished projects to reveal too. So much to do, so little time. Catch ya later.

Spring Fiber Festival

Hello all. Man I've been busy. So much fun with friends, family and fiber fiends. I'll post more of my escapades next week. Just a quick note with regard to the Spring Fiber Festival that's tomorrow at the Sedalia Center in Bedford Virginia. If you're out there, please say "Hi." I'll have Rogue on if its chilly and Kermit the Frog lace bitters on my tennis shoes :) Have a great weekend!

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.

Felted Fortune Cookies

In honor of the Chinese New Year which was celebrated on January 29th, I whipped up some fortune cookies. No not the edible kind, the knitted kind.



* More pictures below...

I can't begin to tell you how fun these were to make. My gift to you is the "recipe" that you'll find below. Whip up a few and throw them in a chinese food box (you can find them at most craft stores). You can use them as party favors for weddings and baby showers. Write up some naughty fortunes and give them to your significant other for Valentines Day. Keep some on hand to give as gifts. Its a fun way to not only practice short rows but to use up your wool scraps (as you can see, several of my "cookies" are unusually colored). Please, send me pictures of your fortune cookies so I can see how yours turn out.

Keep your eyes open for Felted Fortune Cookie Kits in my Etsy shop in the coming week!


IndigoMuse's Felted Fortune Cookies



Yarn: Cascade 220 (color #8010 is off white) or other 100% wool yarn
Supplies:
Size 10.5 knitting needles ( I used Clover Bamboos)
Darning needle
Sewing needle and monofilament (clear) thread
1/2 inch wide or wide (I used 7/8") Satin ribbon

Gauge: not necessary

Stitches:
Tip - I slip the first stitch of each outside edge row for a neater circle.
K = Knit
Sl = Slip stitch without knitting
W&T = Wrap and turn; knit to the point where the pattern says to turn. Bring your yarn to the front of the work, slip the next stitch from the left hand needle, take your yarn to the back of the work, Slip the stitch back to the left hand needle. Turn your work and place the yarn at the back of your work before knitting to the beginning of the row.

Large Cookie:
Pre-Felted diameter - 8"
Post – Felted diameter - 6"

CO 15 stitches (leave a 12 - 15" long tail that will be used to stitch up the center when finished knitting the unfelted cookie)

1. K3, w&t, k3
2. K6, w&t, k6
3. K9, w&t, k9
4. K12, w&t, k12
5. K15, turn, sl1, k14

Repeat steps 1 - 5 until you have enough wedges to make a complete circle (approximately 14 - 15 wedges). You are not binding off the stitches at the end of each wedge but are knitting wedges together to form a circle.

Stitch the two sides of the circle together with the tail and your darning needle. Stitch center circle closed and weave in ends.

Small Cookie:
Pre-Felted diameter - 6"
Post- Felted diameter - 4.25"

CO 10 stitches (leave a 12 - 15" long tail that will be used to stitch up the center when finished knitting the unfelted cookie)

1. K2, w&t, k2
2. K4, w&t, k4
3. K6, w&t, k6
4. K8, w&t, k8
5. K10, turn, sl1, k9

Repeat steps 1 - 5 until you have enough wedges to make a complete circle (approximately 11 - 12 wedges). You are not binding off the stitches at the end of each wedge but are knitting wedges together to form a circle.

Stitch the two sides of the circle together with the tail and your darning needle. Stitch center circle closed and weave in ends.

Felting:
Put fortune cookies in a zippered pillowcase. Prepare washer by setting it to the lowest water setting, the hot/cold wash cycle and the heavy duty wash setting, if you have one. Add your detergent of choice and some towels or jeans so that the cookies get plenty of friction while washing. Check progress after each wash cycle (you may need to put them through more than one cycle to get them to felt with little or no stitch definition). Block felted cookies until dry.

Finishing:
Using satin ribbon, fabric or paper, write some witty fortunes for your cookies. If you need help, there are some websites below. Insert the fortune in the middle of the cookie. Fold cookie in half. With sewing needle, lightly tack the middle of the cookie closed. There's no need to stitch the entire edge closed unless you want to. Fold in half again, fortune cookie style and tack the inside where the two pieces meet. Voila! Your fortune cookie is finished! Enjoy!

Fortune websites:
http://www.weirdfortunecookies.com/
http://fortunecookie.rleeden.no-ip.com/
http://www.backgroundsarchive.com/fortune.php
http://www.chinaunique.com/cookie/fortune.htm

Tickled Pink

Travel back with me for a minute. Back to October which now seems like a lifetime ago. I bought a small selection of ProChem acid dyes with the intention of dyeing yarn for holiday projects. And then I did something mind numbingly stoopid and accepted a commission for a fuggly holiday stocking and all those delusions of grandeur came to a skreeching halt. Damn. Double damn.

Fast forward to the first week of January and the first time that I wasn't stressed about knitting projects and classes and life in general. The dyes beckoned me from their hiding place in my stash. In I dove and immediately learned that "real" dyes vs. Kool-Aid produce really dark yarn. I present to you exhibits A and B...



Garish hand dyed yarn



Mini unfelted Buttonhole Bag knit with garish hand dyed yarn

Holy Moly Donut Shop those are some dark colors. Armed with my newfound knowledge, I eased up on the concentration of color and end up with better results but still the colors were crazy-go-nuts D.A.R.K.



Not a bad problem to have but a problem when you're shooting for lighter shades of color. This batch is being knit into wrist warmers for my hair dresser.

A bit discouraged, I went back to the drawing board, this time to try to replicate the color pink from one of my felted bags. Call me stupid but I was willing to at least give it a try. I bought a huge pot, toyed with diluting a small batch of my red stock solution (which is suspiciously fushia in my opinion) and voila! Kettle dyed pink yarn.



I can't begin to tell you how happy I am with the results. It matches perfectly. It's variegated. I'm now hooked on kettle dyeing and plan to do much, much more as soon as King Thing goes out of town again. All those dyes in our pristine white kitchen make him want to faint. Some things are best not seen, non?

Yes siree, I've been as busy as a one legged man in an ass kicking contest (For those of you who don't know, that's a Southernism. I'd love to hear your favorite if you have one). Anyhoo, between teaching knitting classes, private lessons and serious amounts of commissioned knitting and my regular job and oh yeah, being a domestic slave err... mother and wife, the Muse has had very little time to blog or read blogs. I've managed a bit of drive-by blog reading this week with a quick comment here and there. I hate not to comment like I used to but right now, time really is money. My mantra for 2006 is balance and I'm working hard to maintain it. I've been fairly successful and hope to keep my noggin above water this year.

So what's on my needles right now? A simple mindless felted tote bag - one of many - that's destined to be a birthday gift for my former California now North Carolina best friend. I'm lusting after a new knitting challenge but I'm not sure what that is just yet. And considering how little time I have for pleasure knitting right now, I might just need to stick to small projects or I'll be knitting the larger ones forever. I have WAY too many WIP but none of them are calling me from the stash. And spinning sadly has been practically non-existent. I think I might need to try to focus this year on either spinning, knitting or dyeing but I'm not convinced that I'm ready to commit to just one yet. Am I fickle or what?

What I CAN say that I've learned about myself over the past year is that I'm not nuts about sweaters. I know its blasphemy to say it out loud and I might lose my license to knit in saying so. Don't get me wrong, I love Rogue and some of the others that I've made in the past but for the most part, I really enjoy knitted accessories. I think people tend to gravitate to the knit bloggers who tackle sweaters and frankly I admire them too. But I think I've found my niche and plan to delve into deeply this year. Hope I don't bore you in the process.

Well back to work and life. I'll try to stop in more frequently but no promises. Many thanks for the kind words of encouragement. You're all too kind and I've missed you more than you'll ever know.

The Road to Hell...

Are you familiar with the phrase "the road to Hell is paved with good intentions?" It's always in my head. Especially when I intend to do things and then can never seem to get around to them. Such have been the last few weeks. I've intended to do a LOT of things and actually got around to doing some of them but many more remain in a state of limbo. My knitting room is still a wreck, I'm way behind on paperwork, and the I intended to bake lots of my famous holiday goodies and give them as gifts. And yet for the second year in a row, it didn't happen. I intended to knit ALL of my holiday gifts. I'm happy to say that 90% of my gifts were knit but that 10% is eating away at me. December was a blur of teaching knitting classes, working on commissioned knitting projects, working full time once again in my "real" job and lots of entertaining. And while I'm a bit exhausted now, this holiday season was truly everything that I'd wished it to be. I got everything I wanted and SO much more. I spent several special evenings with various groups of friends including my newfound knitting buddies from the past year. Nothing is more fun than food, fun and fellowship in my book. My parents, brother and nephew spent Christmas at La Casita de Muse this year. We haven't spent Christmas all in one house in years and it was just as magical as I dreamed that it would be. But the best gift of all came from our California friends - who are now back on the East Coast in North Carolina and only three hours away - who drove all the way across the US just in time to spend New Year Eve with us for the first time in 13 years. I'm still pinching myself that they're here and you'll be hard pressed to rip the permagrin off my face. You see, for me, the holidays aren't about whats under the tree but the joy in my heart. I'll long forget what was given to me this year but I will never forget the conversations and laughter that was shared round the kitchen island, the roaring fire and by the Christmas tree.

My resolution for 2006 is to work harder year round to maintain the spirit that Christmas instills in me. And to enjoy the gifts of love, laughter and friendship that have so generously been bestowed upon me. I look forward to sharing more yarn related adventures with all of my cyberfiber friends this year. I have truly missed everyone over the last few months. I'm very slowly catching up on emails and blog reads so please be patient with me. This little Phoenix is just starting to rise from the ashes :)

Binging and Purging

If any of you have Scorpios in your lives, you know how hard they can crash and burn from time to time before they rise to renewed glory out of the ashes. I'm learning as I grow older to recognized these crash and burn scenarios and try to head them off at the pass before they blind side me. Such have been the last four weeks. I had so much coming at me that I had to purge some parts of my life that I didn't really want to but had to in order to maintain my sanity. I took sabbatical from most everything except work, the Things and knitting. The rest of it - including email, blogging and blog reading - was placed carefully aside to wait until I got past that "oh shit I'm drowning, somebody save me" period that I was having. And while I've missed keeping up with your fiberadventures and showing you all of the gifts that have been flying off my needles, I was glad to have the break. I didn't spiral into depression. I didn't keep myself up at night with anxiety attacks. And most of all, I was readily to the important people in my life. So many wondrous things have happened over the last few weeks. My organization received grant funding so I'll get to start back into my job full time very soon. My knitting classes have gone nuts lately and I have students coming out of my ears. I'm getting orders for hand knit items for the holidays. And I've spent loads of quality time with familiy and friends. I'm learning to say no and not "manage" (tee hee - Heaz) every aspect of my life. And also learning that sometimes letting go is really a good thing.

I'm sorry that I missed my own deadline for the Fall Foto contest. I promise to catch up on entries and wrap it up in the coming weeks. I also apologize for not responding to comments or emails. I hope to get some knitting photos up soon and resume some components of "regular" life in the coming weeks.(((((Big Hugs))))))))

A tale of two socks and Fantastic Foto Friday - Part One

(***Edited to add: What is up with Bloglines? It seems like everyone is just now able to see my Rogue post from last Friday!!! This sock post went up Oct. 28th. When did it appear in Bloglines for you? How annoying!)

Howdy! I hate that I haven't been able to post more than once a week as of late but man have I been busy. While there's still no word on my job, I've at least been able to rack up some extra hours. It has taken some of the edge off.

And Monday marks a milestone for me. I will no longer be a part of the 22-35 demographic bracket. Yes folks, I'll turn 36 this Halloween (Any other Halloweenies out there?). But you know, I'm not bitter and I'm not sad about getting older. So I have a few more pounds and wrinkles than I want but I also have gained great knowledge over the last three decades. As people have asked me what I want for my birthday, I've been given the opportunity to ponder my wants. And in the process I realize, I really don't have any "wants." I have everything that I want: great, loving friends; both of my parents and my brother; an incredible roof over my head; a loving husband and children; my health; a job; creative skills; I live in freedom - what more should I want? I personally know people who have tremendous health needs, who have recently lost loved ones, who long for love, who have lost their jobs. No, I have no wants. I'm just happy to have so much to be thankful for :)

Okay, on to what you really came here for, A Tale of Two Socks - the desert sock and the metropolitan sock. I joined Lolly's Socktoberfest (holy cow I just substituted a C for the S when typing. What on earth was I thinking?) in hopes that it would prompt me to finish a pair of socks that I started this summer. Well, that plan didn't work because I was distracted by a skein of Koigu that Heaz gave me that has been calling to me for several weeks. Tuesday night, I decided that I would use it to teach myself a new skill and discover the world of toe up socks (vs cuff down socks). Using Wendy's Knitty tutorial on the figure 8 cast on and with many false starts, I was finally able to get it started. I took the sock with me to a meeting in Richmond on Wed. and knocked out several inches over the course of two hours. Isn't it funny how people are so amazed by anything knit on double points, even knitters!



Me likie! Me likie a lot. And so does Thing 1 who shamelessly asked me if he could have them when they're finished since they look like Desert Storm camo. Considering that this is the first thing that he's asked me to knit him besides a thong (YIKES!), I will happily oblige him.

The sock bug has bitten me in a hard way. Whilst searching for more patterns online, I came across a footie pattern using cashmere. Now who just frogged an extra large men's cashmere sweater and has tons of this stuff sitting around? ME!!!! So I cast on for a pair of cashmere socks too after knitting a test swatch/bookmark to get a gauge sample. Mmmmm, cashmere socks.



Both of the Things commented on how uber soft this yarn is and I have to agree. Cashmere is some serious fiber crack. And it only cost me three bucks! Score. To add icing to the cake (have I mentioned that I'm jonesin' for some buttercream icing?), a friend of mine just gifted me with some old sweaters, three of which are cashmere. I only had the heart to frog one of them (that's the seafoam colored yarn that you see in the picture)though. Let's just say that I won't be frogging any machine stitched sweaters in the future - unless they're cashmere. What a pain in the arse! There were many, many, many, many tiny stitches to rip before you could even frog the yarn. But I'm here to prove to you that it can be done with minimal breaks in the yarn too. How dare anyone tell me that I can't do something?

And in line with the whole sock thing and to get a jump start on holiday knitting, I joined the Fuzzy Feet along that Crazy Aunt Purl dared us all to be a part of. I'm going to love knitting these and all of my family and friends will have happy warm feet for Christmas.

I also finished my first test knit - a Boy Toy dog toy for Annie's new book. It's not a good picture. As usual for Annie, the pattern was well written and fun to knit. Princess Mavis was not impressed but I would think that most normal dogs would have had a ball tossing him around.



She says that more toys are headed my way. I can't wait!

Zira's landed back in the states and has been out partying her monkey butt off (the little lush that she is).






She's hanging in Arizona where the temperature are twice those in SW Virginia - brrr! Check out Zira's blog for more on her adventures.

In an effort not to completely overwhelm you with too many photos, I'm going to post some of the fall pictures that you've sent me over the weekend. In the meantime, check out this sunrise I caught early last week.



We may not have beautiful fall foliage but day-um we can still rock the fall colors in other ways. I'm going to attempt to capture these colors in some hand dyed yarn over the weekend. Catch ya later.

***BTW, thanks for all of the compliments on Rogue. Can you feel me blushing? I *HEART* her so much!

Fantastic Foto Friday

Oy vey, what has happened to October? It seemed like just yesterday it began and now its almost over. I guess the good news is that we're that much closer to spring. The last week was such a blur for me. I trying to be proactive with the whole SAD thing that I'm almost 99% sure that I suffer from. I don't want to end up in the pit of despair that fell into last Winter. I've started a daily diary for the next month so that I can hopefully pinpoint the trouble spots before I go to my doctor for a professional diagnosis. I'm tracking my eating, exercise, the weather and stressors. I also bought a full spectrum (OTT) light that I plan to use when there's no sun (like today). I REALLY don't want to feel like I did last Winter ever again if I can help it.

Okay, so I owe y'all a ton of updates.

First up, the Fall Foliage update. I'm really hoping that people are busy taking pictures which is why they're slow coming in. Please oh please tell me that some of you have beautiful fall foliage in your part of the world.

Julie obviously loves fall as much as I do. She sent an entire portfolio leave picures. Check them out here. My favorite is this one.

Busyhands' tree in the front yard is quite the show off. Check this out this beauty.

Jane emailed this loverly photo to me.



Doesn't she have some incredibly vibrant color in Nova Scotia. What a gorgeous yard! BTW, she has a free range scarf design contest up on her blog. Check it out!

Finally, here's a shot of the foliage in my backyard.



Not much to get crazy over is it? :( That's why I need your pictures. Go ahead. Flash me. I dare ya!

Now, even though I had a rough time last week, I was able to movivate myself to finish a sorely neglected UFO. I FINALLY present to you, exhibit A. Dear sweet Rogue.



"Finally, she finished me! Woot Woot!"

Specs:
Pattern - Jenna's incredibly well written Rogue pattern
Yarn - Cascade 220 Tweed (the color is a brownish green sorry but I've lost the ball bands)
Needles - Size 6 and 7 Denises
Project timeline - Sept. 2004 - October 2005 (Day-um!)
What I learned and what I'd do differently - I learned a helluva lot about knitting the "right" way; that cables rule and are less intimidating than I originally thought; that it would have been easier to knit this in one block of time rather than over the course of a year plus; that a well written and sized pattern does wonders for your body image; that taking the time to finish a sweater properly pays off in the end.

It took some soul searching to figure out why it took me so long to finish her and came up with several reasons.

1.) I'm not happy with my body shape and wasn't thrilled with having to knit one of the larger sizes.

2.) I hate knitting seemingly endless rows of stockinette and after the wrist cables, the sleeves were just that.

3.) I didn't have the proper motivation to finish. However, I promised myself that I couldn't even open the box on my new cellphone until every last stitch was done, the ends were woven in and she was seamed and blocked. Needless to say, I was done in two days. BTW, all of the pictures in this post were taken with my new cellphone. While they're not fabulous, I think they're pretty damn good.

4.) I have major completion issues because I dread the thought of saying "goodbye" to anything (human or inanimate).

5.) Having not knit set in sleeves before, I was a nervous wreck about doing them correctly. Plus, my gauge in the round and on straights is different and even after many calculations, I wasn't positive that it would work out in the end.

Wouldn't you agree that I worried about absolutely nothing?

"Oh Happy Day!"

Check out those hoodie cables!

I finished it on Wednesday, which ended up being one of the hottest days we've had in years in October - near 80 degrees! However, today its in the low 60's and Rogue is oh, so warm and snuggly!

Now King Thing is bugging me to finish his handspun cabled vest. There are no sleeves so this baby should fly off the needles.

On the fiber front, there was no spinning this week. However, I finally found a cashmere sweater at the thrift store (I've been searching for a couple of weeks) and have been happily reclaiming its yarn. Its a beautiful deep red and will yield close to 2500 yards of laceweight yarn. Enough for many beautiful lace shawls and scarves. I think I'm going to have to share some of this with some of my knit buds because its so loverly :)

Oh and I almost forgot that I made a quick visit to the new location of Knitting Sisters while in Williamsburg to speak at the Virginia Library Association state conference. They have the most incredible selection of yarns - Rowan, Colinette, Noro, Lorna's Laces - just to name a few. And a mega ton of pattern books, including the new Noro Revisited by Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton. While I am no fan of Noro yarns, I love some of the patterns in this book. The pictures aren't up at the Knitting Garden yet but I do encourage you to check out this new book. It's worth it! As hard as I tried, I did not find that I needed anything but a skein of Lambs Pride for a test project, some Kookabura wool wash and a 40" Denise cord. Exciting huh? But at least I got to soak up some good fiber rays with other knitters. Happy knitting and spinning this weekend!