Thursday, January 18, 2007

FIBER GEEK QUESTIONAIRE

The latest edition of the e-magazine devoted to fiber arts has a fun questionaire in it for anyone with a blog to post and answer if they would like. I'm curious to see if anybody who reads my blog will also answer the questionaire too. Here is the questionaire and my answers:

1. Do you raise fiber, animals or plant, or are a fiber user only? If you raise animals/plants...what do you raise? Right now I am a fiber user only, but we are planning on getting some angora rabbit this year.

2. What's your favorite fiber & why? Which fiber do you like the least & why? Well I suppose that I'd have to say that my favorite is wool. I like it because of it's versatility and it's easy spinning. My least favorite right now is that really slippery super fine merino top. That stuff may be soft and fine and spin like butter, but it is so slippery that I have a heck of a time hanging on to it. I wants to slide out of my hands in big clumps or itty bitty threads.

3. What's your worst habit relating to your fiber? Finding great fleeces and enhancing my stash even though I have several on hand that already need cleaning and processing.

4. In what ways does your fiber habit make you a better person? It is a fantastic stress reliever for me plus it helps me to relax and keep my mind occupied.

5. How would your life be different if you had to give up fiber? I have been working with fiber for so long in one way or another that I seriously can't imagine what it would be like to not have my hands on a skein of yarn. I suppose if I were forced to never touch yarn again I would have to take up some other type of art that satisfied my need for an artistic manipulation of color in my life.

6. What tools, yarns, books or gadgets can't you live without? uhhhm....that would definately be my computer.

7. What was your first fiber project? When I was a senior in high school I made my very first afghan. It fit my queen size bed and I still have it. Boy did we ever have some ugly colors back then!

8. Do you have any fiber mentors? Who are they and why? Carol Lee from Wyoming has helped my quite a bit when I first started out. Otherwise, I'd have to say that my mentor's are the hundred's of talents fiber artists who post on their blogs and on the various yahoo groups I belong to and read. I have learned SO much from reading all the posts and blogs.

9. Are you a member of any guilds? If so, which one(s)? Ozark Folk Fiber Guild

10. What's the most exciting fiber project you've undertaken? I participated in the Olympic knitting project and actually completed my Magic Shawl in time!

11. How many people have you mentored? In which fiber arts? I don't know about actually "mentoring" anyone, but I've sure had a lot of people watch me spin or knit and ask lots of questions over the years while spinning or knitting at the ball park.

12. Do you consider fiber crafts to be functional or artistic? Both.

13. What, mainly, do you make? Do you keep, or give away, most of your projects? I've been making a lot of hats this past year for Christmas and I've done several felted purses for swaps. So all of those were given away. I do seem to give lots of my knitting away by swapping, but I do knit for myself alot too.

14. Are fiber crafts an avocation or vocation for you? vocation

15. How many people are you committed to being a mentor for in 2007? I'm not committed to mentor anyone, but if someone asked, I'd be happy to teach them what I know.


I'd love to know how many of my readers will take this questionaire and post it on their own blogs, so let me know! Drop me a line so I can visit your blog and read your answers!

And the hits just keep on coming!

There is something about a sick male that is really, really to be pondered. Take my husband for instance. Last week, after trying to work up the courage to go to the doctor for some bloodwork, he finally went. He's been feeling a little bit "off" physically for the last few weeks, but it was nothing he could really put his finger on. All he knew was he just didn't feel good and he was off his feed. That in and of itself should have been a red flag. When Tony doesn't eat, there is definitely something going on. Well, on Monday the nurse called with the lab results. Now, when the doctors office calls you about your labs, your heart immediately does that little stutter step and you have visions of 10 horrid diagnosis flash before your eyes even before you get the phone to your ear and say "hello". So, Libby calls and tells us that he has an ulcer. Not good, but not awful either. He will survive. The hitch in the little recovery plan is that the meds the doctor ordered was kicked back by the insurance company for some stupid reason of them saying that they wanted them to prescribe something that wasn't a multidose pack. So they had to RE-prescribe the same medicine, just broken down into individual pills instead of taking an all in one type deal. Well that little delay cost a day in getting the meds into him. You wouldn't think that 24 hours would make that much of a difference would you. Wrong.

This morning at about 4:30 his stomach decided to launch it's first round of what was going to be the start of a pseudo-nuclear war inside of Tony's gut. If any of you are familiar with what happens to someone who is locked in a battle with a full blown active ulcer attack, it's not pretty and the ulcer takes no prisoners. It shoots to kill. Tony swears he was dying. In fact the jury is still out. But, he is stubborn like most men. The first time I asked him if he wanted to go to the ER, he passed. So I just let him wait it out. I knew eventually that we would be going. So I hunkered down and tried to stay warm and get my rest while I could. Sure enough, pretty soon he said lets go.

Like always, going to the emergency room is no fun. Unless you definitely are showing them signs that if they don't get you in the back RIGHT NOW, you are going to die, the wait is at least 1 to 2 hours. Now once you get to the back, they take care of business right away and are very good at what they do. They loaded him up with IV fluids, phenergan, something to coat his gut and some bacteria busters. Meanwhile, they finally got our med situation straight at the pharmacy so when we left the ER, we could go pick it up on the way home. About 4 1/2 hours from start to finish, I carried and exhausted and pretty loopy husband home and poured him back into bed.

That's where he stays. He is going to be very sad at me for the next few days. I've been down this ulcer road before. He gets to see just how lovely it is being on a bland diet is for a while. He is going to hate it. This is the guy who love hot and spicy.

But seriously, I really don't think his diet has had anything to do with it. I think that he can chalk this totally up to stress. Some of it is self-inflicted, some of it is totally unavoidable. Despite the source, he has got to figure out a way to deal with it better. I wish that I could help him, but you know how lots of men are....they don't want help solving their problems, they can fix them all by their selves. So, I'll just make dry toast and bring the tea.

Oh, and knit. That I can do. I've been doing it a lot lately. It seems to keep me semi-sane. I've finished the calorimetric for my sister. I am so behind in taking photos. I didn't even take one of the hat I made for my daughter for Christmas and it turned out so dang cute! Oh well. I'll take lots of pics and make a post of nothing but pictures one day. Plus I've been spinning a lot. I'm trying to hit a certain yardage for the spin to knit swap and keep missing by just a few tiny yards! I'm getting some groovy yarn though so you'll see that too.

Wish me luck. Gotta pin on my nurse Nancy pinafore.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Pod Casts

I have slowly been getting with the program and started listening to some knitting podcasts. I've been reading about podcasts for a while now and so many people write about how much they really enjoy listening to them. I have been just amazed at how many podcasts there are! There are podcasts about just about anything you can imagine. I guess it's the next best thing since the blog. Seems like it's the child OF the blog. Cuz usually where there is a podcast there was a blog first. But then again, where there is a podcast, there is a blog of the show notes, so I guess it's a matter of chicken or the egg. Either way, it's a lot of fun to listen to and really entertaining.

Up until just the last few weeks I've only been able to listen to them on my computer. I've told my DH that I really wanted an ipod so that I could put my podcasts and my talking books on it and use it while knitting or choring or whatever. So much more freedom than to be hooked up to this thing. So far I don't have my ipod yet, but he did get me a new cell phone the other day that has all kinds of neat bells and whistles on it, one being the ability to play MP3's. It stores them on a removable flash card like you put in a digital camera which it totally cool, so you can buy a larger one than what came with the phone. The one that came in the phone is only 128mg, so it really doesn't hold that much. Especially if you have any photos stored in the memory also, which I do. But it holds enough that I can put about 30 minutes or so on it right now so that I have something to listen to while I'm waiting at the doctors office or whatever.

So far, I have to say that my absolute favorite podcast knitting wise is Lime and Violet. Those two women just have TOO much fun!! I can totally see myself being friends with them. They absolutely crack me up. My 2nd favorite podcast is probably Cast On. Even the yarn supplier WEBS has gotten on the podcast bandwagon with one called "READY, SET, KNIT!", and it is pretty darn good too.

What is neat about these things is that they are absolutely free to listen to. I get mine from ITUNES, but I'm pretty sure that there are several different hosts that they uplink their shows to and they are all free to subscribe to. ITUNES keeps a show archive, so whatever has been aired in the past you can listen to also. It's really simple to use, and if you have a fast connection it takes no time at all to upload an edition or a "show". I don't know about the other hosts, but on ITUNES, they have a search feature so you can type in knitting or spinning and get a great long list.

Only thing I've noticed with these podcasts is that the people who start them are kinda like us who have blogs. We all start out with great intentions I suppose and then life or circumstances get in the way. Some of the knitting/spinning podcasts haven't had any new episodes broadcast in a good while. I'll keep the ones I liked in my queue anyway just in case they get back in the program saddle and start broadcasting again. It always shows when a show has been updated.

SO.....if you haven't checked out podcasts, I say do it. And start with Lime 'n Violet. You can find their blog about their podcast with the shownotes here at: http://www.limenviolet.blogspot.com/ Seriously, any woman who refers to her lumps in her breast as "boob rocks" has got to have a MAJOR sense of humor.

OTN: Calometrics and fingerless mitts for my sister

Toodles............

Friday, January 05, 2007

Welcome 2007

Well, another year has arrived. Yes, I am the captain of the obvious. I am one who does not make New Year's Resolutions. I figure meh! what's the point? Why set myself up for certain failure? I'm just hoping for better. Better than what? Well that would take far, far too long. Those in the teeny tiny inner circle are already bored with the details. Not that the inner circle is teeny tiny, but that there are just very few people. Anymore.

I used to know people. I used to know ALOT of people. In fact, a lot of people used to know me. Mainly because I lived in the same small town for 20 years (small town, being about 6500 pop.) and because for 18 years of the 20, I worked in the public service arena. More people probably knew who I was than I knew who they were actually. I lost all of that. I'm not over that yet.

Number one son has moved away. I really am not sure how I feel about this. He is 3 hours away now. As a mom, that is a little bit scary. But, on the other hand, as a mom, that is somewhat exciting because I hope and pray that he finally takes this time to grow up. He wasted the last three years of his life so perhaps this means that his head if finally screwed on frontwards. He did live on his own for about 2 years previously, but he was here in town and close enough to get to if I needed to. It almost feels like he is really gone gone.

Pa and I too Malia to the play yard at Burger King the other day. That little toot, I tell you one thing, she is NOT afraid of anything. It wasn't anytime before she was climbing all the way up to the top of the tower thing with the big kids. And just grinning from ear to ear.

We need it to stop raining! It has been raining it seems like for about a month at least. Poor kid, the only thing Malia wanted for Christmas was a tractor. You know, one of those battery car things? Except this thing looks like a John Deere tractor complete with front end loader and trailer to haul stuff. I don't think she has had a chance to play with it outside yet. But she sure has tore up the house with it. Kitchen table? Not a problem......right into the laundry room. She wants to help her daddy scoop up the horse poop. More power to her!

Boy number 2 and 3 had an interesting and adventuresome holiday break. One they won't soon forget to say the least. We shall see how soon this life lesson lasts.

So, I'm wondering if any of you who are experienced with hot flashes and all the miserable events that go with it have any nuggets of wisdom to pass along about how to live through the torture? I'm dying. And my family if turning into human popsickles. My poor husband who is usually a human heater is even freezing. It's rediculous. I think it's time for a medication adjustment.