Hello all, sorry for vanishing like that.

Holidays with the family were excellent. The hat was a HIT (bro barely ever took it off), sock was a little too small (no big deal), pictures to follow.

I’m now in Outer Banks in North Carolina with good friends for New Years. I expected to have internet, but don’t. I’m on a friend’s Sprint connection.

Good company, good time for healing, good thing.

Will be back on the 5th.

See you all soon.

~The Gnome

An interesting weekend. I was supposed to go in to work, but got snowed in.

I snapped off my diffienbachia, right in the middle. I’ve had the poor thing since before high school. 14 years. ::sigh::

I put the top in a new, well watered pot, and there’s a chance the bottom will sprout a new top. But… still, not the best thing.

Then I broke the clip on the shoulder strap of my work bag. Ugh.

I plied one bobbin of the Dionysus before running out of plying thread. I’ll be finishing that up, setting and drying it tonight. Hopefully photos up tomorrow.

Some new roving arrived. Clun Forest, a downs breed. It’s very different in it’s hand, I’m looking forward to seeing how it behaves. I’ve got 4 pounds. A good contrast to the Polwarth I posted earlier exploding out of the box.

In the evening, the power went out, whee! So, after calling the power company and cursing the fact all my storm lanterns are at my parents’ house in Western MA, I lit my little decorative oil lamp.

And sat down, determined to get some progress on my little Brother’s holiday present.

This is why this is a decorative lamp. My one at my parents’ has glass so it reflects out a lot more useful light. Still, I could have managed, which was nice to know.

Then I remembered I have a coleman lantern for camping. And with the oil lamp handy for illumination, it was easy to light. And much easier to knit by.

Eventually, the power came back on, incidentally just before I went to bed.

Sunday, I got some fiber through the first batch of dyeing, before finishing up the hat and getting some more work done on the mistake rib thin scarf.

Hat for Lil Bro! (A Hat Fit For A Boyfriend)

This is in Plymouth Happy Feet yarn, double-stranded (whee true DK!) So it’s a nice thick, squishy, stretchy hat that breathes well. The idea being that it will be a good hat for my little brother to use backpacking as it can take the wear and won’t be overly hot for his high metabolism. But he still needs a hat for when he’s up in the hills of CA and the west coast backpacking. Hopefully it works well for him.

And more scarf. Still got a ways to go since it’s thin scarf for doubling over.

Tonight I get to bag up all the food I haven’t gotten thrown away from the power outage before I go home to visit my parents.

That’s all for now!

~The Gnome

Very tired. But doing ok.

Let’s see.

Not as much done this week as planned. Much time has been consumed by things like cleaning the thawed and refrozen juice from my special T-bone steaks (Omaha Steaks, a gift) from the bottom of my freezer. ::sigh:: I’d been saving those. But they thawed enough to leak juice all over everything, so I don’t know if I want to risk trusting them. Still have 3/4 of a turkey to get rid of, a casserole of stuffing, and two things of gravy. ::sigh again::

Lab continues as lab always does, even with the new absence, slowly but through the force of stubbornness.

And now, onto more fibery things. Little brother’s hat is about ready for decreases. Yay. I might actually get it done by the holiday. Which would be good. Then I can work on the scarf/hat and Dad’s other sock (yes, he’s getting one sock for the holiday, it’s been a little insane, and he’ll understand)

I finally got the “vine” for Dionysus beaded with succulent and dew decked grapes…

An xmas gift from a dear friend… this quite literally exploded out of the box when I opened it.

a three pound batt (commercially produced) of Polwarth fleece, from Canada. It’s very very soft. I’m still figuring out exactly what I want to do with it in terms of dye method, colors, spinning, and if I want to try to put pieces of it on the shop or not.

Big snowstorm incoming. Two actually. I’m hoping to get the super secret international order out to the post office before it hits. I’ve also got two packages to get into the mail from here, but that’s easy. One contains fibery goodness. The other, sweet sweet holiday goodness.

The first squares arrived last night for the memorial afghan.

Never enough time.

EDIT: Just got this photo. Meet a new fiber buddy. This is my alpaca, Douglas. He was a holiday gift from Tom during my blackout. Isn’t he cute? He’s soft. But he won’t grow me more alpaca. This makes me sad.

~The Gnome

Finally, after 5+ days without heat or power, we’re back. Whee!

Apparently a day of being the polite squeaky wheel can help. It was nice to make a pot of tea and microwave a grilled cheese sandwich. Unfortunately I can’t trust the 3/4 of a turkey in my fridge, but at least my heirloom plants currently look like they survived.

So, obviously, I’m a little behind on things, I had hoped to get Cernunnos or more Queen Mab up on the site before xmas/new years, but it looks like that’s unlikely now. ::sigh::

In good news…

I finished the threads for Dionysus. Still can’t get them to photograph pefectly, but this is fairly close. I got the serger thread for the vine yesterday.

I also finally, after many many trips to the dyepot, finished the last of my noiled silk roving (working on getting some more similar stuff). It’s called “Sapphire Surprise” and I can’t show it to you, because it’s someone’s self-surprise for the holiday. I’m rather pleased with it, actually. So once she receives it, I’ll post a photo.

Over the weekend, while Tom was visiting, we went to a new yarn shop. I was a little nervous, because it’s on Newbury Street in Boston, a street full of pretentious galleries and overpriced snobbery. The other yarn store there, I refuse to set foot in again after the last visit, “Can I help you?” with the tone of, “WTF are YOU doing here?”

It was hard to find, buried as it was in between aforementioned pretension, but find it we did. Despite my worries, prices were totally fair, the women were wonderfully nice, and interested that I knit and crocheted, and appropriately appreciative of Tom’s hat (which I crocheted last year out of Alpaca yarn he got in SF). Nice! I got two things.

Mountain Colors – Bearfoot, in the colorway “Moose Creek” which I think is gorgeous. This photo doesn’t do justice to the incredibly dark rich colors. Also, its given me some inspiration for a set of things I want to try on some roving. Also, very reasonably priced for handpainted yarn. 25$ for 350yds of 60% SW wool, 25% Mohair, 15% Nylon.

Jojoland. I don’t know for sure what I’m going to do with it, but I love the color. Unfortunately far too thin for a Clapotis for Mom, but really pretty. Maybe a lightly cabled scarf instead? 100% SW wool.

And I think I may have a problem.
You see, I feel like I’m “running out” of fiber.
But…

This is a portion of my roving collection. Hrm.

In my defense, most of that needs to be spun, as it’s stuff that is pre-dyed or is getting spun in natural colors (and alpaca locks that need to be flicked). I’m down to only three undyed rovings, plus one I’m keeping for myself (sorry guys, but Devante’s fiber was a gift and I waaaants it).

My little brother’s hat is coming along. Getting near the end of the straight up part, getting to the… pulling… into a… hat formation. Can’t brain today, have teh dumb.

So, that’s about it for the moment. Oh, things in lab are slowly getting back up and running, and so far working ok. And I got a haircut. Yay.

~The Gnome

Still no power.

Still no heat.

Was 4 degrees (Fahrenheit) with windchill this morning. Made it with blankets and residual heat last night, if the power’s not back tonight, it won’t be enough. Bah.

Is it a sign of bad priorities that I’m as worried, or more, about my poor plants (lemons, coffees, diffenbachias, etc) as I am about me being cold?

I can haz heat nao plz kthxbai?

~The Gnome