Designers vs Magazine Contracts

I had no idea this is how this all worked....

Read this: http://www.modeknit.com/2009/02/valuing-our-work.html

Then go here (one of my fav designers!) http://ysolda.com/wordpress/

Thankfully I am more into Interweave than Vogue, and I would rather buy direct from the designer!

How to update your Louet S10 "Older Wheel"

If anyone can date this wheel, I would really appreciate it!! I would love to know how old this baby is.

This post is for anyone out there with an "older" Louet S10 single treadle wheel. I wanted to update mine with all the newer parts out there, but I could find no pictures of how to do this with my dinosaur of a wheel. So...here we go This is what my wheel looked like before I started. Big bulky washers holding the wheel to the back post. I also had to make a spacer for the footman to wheel connection because it wouldn't clear the center bolt on the wheel. Look here:

With some AWESOME help and mad dash emails from Adrian Bizilia at Hello Yarn, I got the main bolt assembly in correctly to take advantage of the bearings in the back post that were covered up by bigasshonkin washers. So now the wheel spins effortlessly. Next comes the footman bearing... booger that it was!!! This is the part you get:

This is how it's supposed to go in. Flat bearing is on the front of the wheel with a white spacer between the bearing and the wheel, then a washer and nut on the back. This presented a problem for me because, as you can see I have this footman with a huge hole in it!! I explained to Adrian, that is a non-issue, I can either plug that hole with a dowl and sand flush, or I can just make a new footman. I opted for the second option and carefully traced my footman on a piece of stock oak we had in the woodshop. I used the belt sander to shape it to the same size as my old footman, but with no huge gaping hole!! Presto change-o: My new footman!!

Now (whew!) That's all done. Now there is one more part I 'm waiting on. It's the footman connector. It's the little cup part that snaps on to that bearing and then I have to drill a teeny tiny hole in my footman to connect it to the little cup and I have updated my dinosaur into the year 2009!!! Yippee!! Then I can start spinning some of that alpaca and llama....

wait.. maybe I need to talk to Adrian about a carder...

let's see what my next check looks like and go from there!!

Blog Lazyness

Ok It's confirmed. I am a LAZY blogger!! I may be a normal knitter, but I am truly a lazy blogger. I guess it's because I am too busy with my knitting and spinning to spend time on the computer. Ravelry, yes. Blogging? No. I'll continue to update this from time to time, but certainly not on the same level as my cousin over at FatCatCrochet!!

I started a new job at my LYS out in Orland Park. And you will NEVER in a gazillion years guess who was in our shop in December 08. Sandy Wiseheart of Knitting Daily!!! Sadly it was on one of my days off, so I didn't get to see her. She got a pattern for the shawl she did for her Mom, and came in a day later with her Mom to pick out the perfect yarn for the shawl. I did however get to meet her sister who stopped in just about a month ago!

On the spinning front, I ordered new parts for my wheel to get it running in tip top condition so I can spin up the 18 lbs. of fiber I got from a local alpaca and llama farm!!! I'm telling you, this woman said to me in an email "come fill up your trunk" and she wasn't kidding!! Pictures below are just a sample of what I brought home with me.

Time to go get ready, we're meeting up with friends who stood up in our wedding oh so many years ago!!

Happy Knitting/Crochet/Spinning!!

Summer is almost over

And it's been a busy/hectic/traumatic/wonderful summer at that. Lot's of news to catch up on here. I lost some pets this year, my dog Mandy, and 2 of my beloved feathered friends ZooZoo my blue and gold macaw, and my timneh african grey Zoey. That's all I can say about that, or the floodgates will open again....

I got to go back to Arizona to help my Mom move from her apartment into a house my Sister and Brother in law purchased for her to live in. I did get to help finish the house, laying tile, caulking new windows, and tearing down the pool filter and repairing that. And the tile around the top of the pool hadn't been cleaned in a long time, so I got to spend 3 days with a pumice stone and removed all the built up mineral deposits. I was there for about 2 days and she ended up in the hospital with what we thought was pneumonia, but turned out to be a COPD exacerbation, a build up of acid in her bloodstream, and a dangerous drop in both sodium and potassium levels. She was in the hospital for 9 days, so I extended my stay for another week to help finish the house for her. It's a beautiful place, that basically got gutted by my brother, and rebuilt by everyone and anyone that could help out!! Nice Job Guys!!! Mom was in the house 1 night and I had to call 911 when she woke me with chest pains... back in the hospital we go. She's fine now, doing well and LOVING the house!! Thank God for small miracles.

I packed my oldest off for her first year of college at Loyola. I did quite well until about 3 weeks before she left, I saw a Wal-Mart commercial that reduced me to tears.... would I have that "wal-mart moment"?? As it turns out, no. No run down the steps with one last hug for Mom... or Dad... or her sister who she finally bonded with this past year. She was off and running her own life in college.

Why do I feel like I offered her up on a silver platter to any dangerous thug in the world to do with what they want?!?!! Normal.. I keep telling myself this is normal... I should concentrate more on the feelings of pride and accomplishment!!! I have busied my self with painting any room in my house that does or doesn't need new paint to keep my head clear. She's a great kid, with a good head on her shoulders. She's smart, and beautiful and she's got great goals set out for herself. She's pre-med bio, going into the medical field somewhere.

My youngest has learned to drive... good God how do parents survive this stuff??!!! I know how I did it... margaritas before lessons!! It worked out pretty well, she is a good driver who knows her limits. She got her sisters car since she's away and won't need it now. She's signed up for 'early bird' at school, so she is up and out the door before anyone else in the house is even awake. Kudo's Kiddo!! You are on the right path in life too!!

On the knitting /fiber front, I am on my 3rd pair of Monkey Socks by Cookie A. I adore this pattern and can't wait to see how my yarns knit up!! I'm picking up my Lady E the 2nd to work on again, now that summer is almost over and it's cooling down a bit. I'll have to refresh my memory how to do entrelac, but thankfully I have my pattern in the bag (yes, my little laminated index cards) with my spot marked on where I left off.

I also went to my very first Fiberfest!! I better get my butt back on eBay and start selling off more crap so I can have more money for this hobby... I love my knitting, and I love my spinning, but it isn't cheap. My wonderful, crazy cousin came up just for this fiberfest, and we had a blast!! We got up at the crack of dawn (ok, it just felt like it..)and drove an hour and 20 min. in a freakish storm that followed us all the way up there. The wipers were going full force and I was secretly wondering if I should pull over for a bit to see if it would slow down. Once we passed the spun out corvette, the rain let up a bit and it pretty much stopped 10 min. outside the fest area. We spent about 6 hrs on our feet, walking, oogling, touching yarns and talking to some of the nicest people on the planet!!!

I thought I had everything I needed, until I saw the raw fleece.... OMG it's just what I have been looking for! I wanted to take a project from the very beginning to the very end, and now I can!!! Knitters/Crocheters are the best!!! I'm just sorry I won't be able to go down to Linda's place for SAFF (banging head on floor, crying, screaming,... ok whining!)
So that my friends is what I have been up to, work, play, spin, knit: repeat!! I'll try to edit with pictures, wish me luck ;)

Dieing, Dyeing, and Spinning out of control.

This is 'my Mandy', she was a great friend and constant companion for my new puppy... who am I kidding, she was a constant companion for ME!!! She passed away peacefully with me petting her, kissing her, and comforting her while they anesthetized her. She was 9 yrs. old, had both knees replaced, had degenerative disc disease, but still chased bunnies in my backyard! She was in heart failure and the vet said we can put her on meds that might work, but she'll be on them for the rest of her life. The decision was made to put her down April 23rd. The day after what would have been my Dad's 73rd Birthday had he lived that long. Dad, meet Mandy....... On Mothers Day, my family asked me what I wanted, and I said I wanted time to dye roving! So that's what I did! I dyed some roving to see what it would spin up like. I have yarn spun, but I figured if I screw it up, at least it's not a huge loss. I used the micro method, and Wilton's icing colorings and played with color to see how they blended. I felt like a kid that just discovered finger paints!! The only thing that kinda freaked me out a little was the popping sounds in the micro. I don't know if it was the wool, the icing/vinegar/water mix, or a combination of them all but something was popping in there! So I did less time (minute and a half) and more time cooling. And this is what I ended up with. Big bold bright colors!! I do like the copper color though. I may go up and see if they have a big honkin jar of that stuff. It has 'light skin tone' on the top of the jar, so it must be a big seller for cake decorators. Anyway, that's what I have been doing since 'My Mandy' passed away.Spinning, and knitting! This is my wheel, it's a Louet S10 older generation. I got her on eBay for $150.00 from a woman in Ohio who had listed it 27 minutes prior to me 'buying it now'! Woot! What a deal!! I have had to replace the treadle/footman connector, and also the leather over the flier brake. But it spins just fine and it was a great price to pay. So if I am not knitting, I am spinning..... out of control.

Hells Bells will it never end?

So my kids come home for spring break sick. Of course being the little germ spreaders they are ,I get sick. Not too bad, little scratchy throat for a couple days, some sinus pain and pressure for 2 days, mild cough, nothing productive or scary (bronchitits=scary) I wake up monday morning not being able to take a deep breath....I'm thinking it's sore muscles from all the coughing over Easter. Tuesday morning, I just can't breath unless they are shallow breaths... so I go off huffing and puffing to the dr. office. He takes one look at me and his eyes go kinda funny looking and he calls for his nurse to come in with the ekg machine, glances back at me and says "I just have to make sure you don't have something life threatning going on here" So I start huffing and puffing a little quicker.... think beginning lamaze :he he he who: he he he who! Too bad I won't end up with a newborn out of this!! :-/ Then it's off for a chest x-ray down the street, and a wait for a call from him. He takes my cell # and tells me he'll call me within 2 hrs. Well he called me back in about 45 min and tells me to head over to the ER to get a ct scan, there is something in my lower lobe of my left lung (and this is what I get for stopping smoking?!?!!) {41 days and counting} Thankfully I didn't have to be admitted, but it still took a little under 8 hrs to come up with a diagnosis of LLLP Left lower lobe pneumonia. Now I don't know about you, but I thought pneumonia comes with a cold... a big nasty sloppy cold, lots of snot, lots of congestion. And it's NOT painful! Wrongo bucko... it can be a slight case of the sniffles that just migrate into your lungs and it is so freaking painful!!! I have had numerous surgeries, spontanious pnumothorax (collapsed lung out of the blue) and I'll tell you I was beginning to think this was another lung collapse! FARK!!! Looking up at God..... Haven't I done enough of this crap already??......

Hey, I guess I am here for a reason.... I must not have knit enough.....

Where has the time gone??!!!!!

WOW! Jan. 16th was my last post to this blog! I can't believe it.... my, oh my, how time flies when you are knitting!! I just finished my Lady Eleanor, and with confirmation from Cory and Trisha at Nana's Knitting Shop that I didn't ruin it during blocking, I can relax and tie knots for the next day or so!
Let's see, what else have I been doing other than dreaming of what to knit next?? My husband and I, along with a co-worker of his drove to Starved Rock State Park a couple weekends ago. We had heard that there were American Bald Eagles that winter over at the park. Who woulda thunk it? Bald Eagles less than an hour and a half from my house!!! Joe gave my husband great advice on purchasing a camera for my last birthday, so we went to take some pictures of these "supposed eagles" that were rumored to be there. Holy crapola!! We weren't out of the car 2 minutes and we scared our first eagle out of the tree we parked under!! We watched as this magnificent bird swooped down and picked a fish right out of the water not 30 feet in front of us and flew off to the nest. Every single one of us was beaming from ear to ear!! I had goosebumps most of the day.... not from the cold, but seeing these birds. At the end of the day (trekking over the ice) we probably saw between 25-30 eagles. What a great adventure it was!! The very next day, just the hub and I took off for downtown Chicago to see the lake that we had heard was frozen solid. Mmmhhmm.... skeptics that we are we had to see it for ourselves before it warmed up. (yea, warm in feb. is like hell freezing over!) The pictures I got speak for themselves. The ice was on average 4 inches thick. The next day on the news there was a reporter standing in the exact place we were and the whole lake was shifting with the waves underneath, so I guess we have impeccable timing!