Tour de Fleece

The Tour de France started yesterday, and while I am not a particularly big fan of cycling (not that its showing at any decent time), I am participating in the Tour de Fleece, mainly on Ravelry.com. This is a challenge for spinners to spin every day, resting on the rest days of the tour, and challenging myself on the challenging (read: mountain) days. Yesterday and today I have kept up, spinning two 1.8 ounce organic merino batts from Spinspanspun.etsy.com that I couldn't resist.

Other than that, my class is about to end. I have my final mediation on Thursday, and after that I will be able to register as a court-annexed mediator. I'm contemplating some business cards, since there is no requirement that you be an attorney to be a mediator. If I had some made now, I could keep them after I graduate, provided my email and phone number don't change.

Tonight I posted some handspun on athens.locallycrafted.net. It is like our Locally Grown website, except the only items available are crafts like soap, yarn and well... anything. Its pretty neat. I don't know that I will sell any yarn, but I figure I could find a home for some and use that money to buy more roving... or pay bills. You know, the important things in life.

Aside from being addicted to New Moon by Stephanie Meyers for the last 48 hours (I finally finished it today), that's about it. Feeding the neighbors dogs, spinning, reading and trying to get the motivation to start a job hunt.

I'm setting a goal for myself: this week I make an appointment with the career services people to talk about my plan. I will do that, I think.

Today I sewed a dress but it needs to be pressed and also I need to find a slip or something. The fabric is shirting material, so its not really suited to the dress. I might put a lining on it, or possibly find a slip.

Here's some photos of today and yesterday's spinning. I've started a couple of cool projects that I'll share when I finish them.

I don't like beer, but...

The Most Interesting Man in the World: I don't like beer, but these are some of the cleverest commercials I've seen in a long time.  "He can disarm you with his mind. Or his hands."

So its hot.  Today was the hottest yet, although tomorrow we're looking at 100.  Ugh.  Tomorrow I have to go to class, so I have to walk a ways from my parking downtown.  That means I get hot and sweaty before I go into class for THREE hours.  Spring is definitely my favorite season. 

I also am suffering from some serious mosquito bites I received while washing my car on Sunday with DH.  He wore pants (smart) and I had already gotten a bunch of bites before I thought about putting on repellant.  Then I decided it was already too late so I didn't put any on.  I am regretting that decision.  Today I slathered it on for our walk.  

I've been knitting, but nothing major to show right now.  I'm working on a pair of socks by my friend Melanie of Lotus Yarns.  I'll post some pictures soon.

Here's a funny picture of Max trying to get a tennis ball out of the tennis ball holder.  He loves tennis balls.

Summer has arrived

So I'm blogging instead of walking to the bus stop. I started to do that, and then got to the end of the driveway and realized I will be in no shape to spend nearly 2 hours with 12 other people if I do that.  So I'll drive and now I have an extra 45 minutes.

I've been knitting a lot.  Coursework is minimal since its a certification based course for mediation, so we don't have cases to read.  We have some reading, but its not hard.  Participation and giving the role playing a try counts towards our grades, so I just have to really *be there*  during class.

Yesterday I spend the afternoon helping Melanie of Lotus Yarns dye yarn for the Sock Summit in August.  We had a great time, got a bunch of skeins dyed up, and chatted about crafting, cooking and whatever.  Be sure to check out her website, she's got a few for sale and can always take custom orders :)

On Saturday, Ellen, Mom and I went to ICE Atlanta, the Indie Craft Experience held at Centennial Olympic Park.  It was great, although I was disappointed in the lack of fiber crafts.  Some of my favorite booths were:

Ex Libris Anonymous: This company takes unwanted hardback books with cool vintage and retro covers and makes a journal out of the cover and back and the first few pages.  It makes a really great product and I really want one!  I was out of money by the time I got to the booth, however, but I'm sure I'll pick one up soon.

Just Add Honey: This company produces teas and had awesome iced tea for sale at the fair.  With temperatures creeping towards 90, we were ready for a drink but this was a great and delicious alternative to soda and bottled water.  It inspired me to go home and make some iced passion tea I had in the cabinet and am now enjoying.

Sublime Stitching: This company produces kits and transferable patterns of quirky and cool embroidery for decorating crafts.  I picked up one with crafting as a theme, and one using Black Apple's designs. (Check out her stuff, she's great too!) I"ll be sure to post whatever I end up embroidering with these designs.  

Whipstitch Fabrics: This is a fabric store in Atlanta that carries awesome lines of fabric for the modern sewer.  I got some delightful fabric pieces that coordinate and I can't wait to figure out what I'll make with them.

All of these booths, and more, got me really energized about crafting.  I've picked up a few charity projects I was working on and am now working towards Six for Six for Warm Woolies. 

This project is geared towards size 6 children's garments and after finishing a pair of socks for the Ten for Ten campaign, I cast on a vest using assorted bulky weight wool I had lying around.  My goal is to both make the requisite projects for these campaigns and use up the yarn I have lying around.  Reducing  my stash is definitely a goal.

This morning I felt like sewing and decided I needed a circular needle holder that I could display the needles on.  Here's the result:

The needles don't quite lay flat yet, but I'm hoping that they'll loosen up and I won't have the problems with needles twisting when I knit with them.  

My goal for the summer is to post each week.  Let's see how that goes :)

Bears, graduations and mountains

Yep, that's a bear.  DH and I went to Gatlinburg last weekend and after spending two days hiking in the mountains and seeing only deer and squirrels, we try to take a detour around some traffic in Gatlinburg proper and drive up on this bear.  It walked down the street towards us, turned towards this condo, checked that the trash can was chained shut and then went back into the woods.  I thought it was pretty big.  DH said it was only a couple hundred pounds, so not very large for a black bear.  I still think a couple hundred pounds is large enough for a black bear.  We were probably only 20 feet away when I took this shot from the car window.  

But before Gatlinburg, my life was busy.  Finishing exams, I went to Atlanta for my sister's college graduation and to house sit for a friend of the family.  We are all so proud of my sister, who graduated with an awesome GPA.  She can do anything she puts her mind to, and is going to do great things!  Go Megan!

After I arrived home, class started, and I had a couple of those before we left town.  Friday we drove to Gatlinburg and spent the next couple of days hiking and viewing spectacular sites.

This is off Clingman's Dome, the obligatory self-taken photo.  Despite not having worn proper footwear and having aching legs, we climbed 330 feet in .5 miles to reach the highest point in the Smoky Mountains.  This is off of the side of the mountain, but was still pretty darn high.

This is a beautiful picture from Cades' Cove, a historic settlement that is now a living museum in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.

This is Laurel Falls.  It is an easy 1.3 mile paved path off of the main road leading to Cades' Cove in the park.  It is named for the mountain laurel that was flowering while we were there.  Some nice man took a picture of DH and I at the falls, but I was wearing unfortunate shorts that day and appear about 30 pounds heavier than I actually am.  I'll be cropping those pictures.

Knitting wise, I kept things pretty simple.  I bought some new yarn at the spinning shop in town and cast them on.  After several false starts, I know have 30% of a pair of Trilobite Socks from Wendy Johnson's new book, Socks from the Toe Up.  

This is how far I was once we reached Georgia and were only an hour from my parents house. 

On Con Law, counter butter and fibery goodness

This is my new counter butter dish. I'm not sure what it is really called, but it keeps the butter at room temperature, so its wonderfully spreadable. The butter goes in the small container attached to the lid, which is inverted into the larger cube that has cool water on the bottom to keep air out. Reading online, I discovered that butter will go rancid eventually at room temperature, but it takes a while. Also, until it goes rancid, it won't hurt you, but when it is rancid, it would be bad to eat. But when it goes rancid, its pretty noticeable and so DH keeps smelling it closely when I put it on bread. I have faith I'll notice rancid butter before I eat it. I put one stick in there, so hopefully that won't go bad. If it does, we'll use half a stick. The best part? $5 at TJ Maxx.

This is just a taste of the dyeing I did this week. I dyed 8 ounces of Correidale that I purchased at the Spinning Loft.

I got the dye from Indie Dyer at Stitches South. I got several other beautiful colors and dyed up around a pound of fiber. Now to get to spinning!

Speaking of spinning. The above yarn is my handspun from Lisa Souza's fiber I purchased at Stitches. Its Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) and spun up wonderfully! If I hadn't dyed up my own... I would probably order some more!

And the Con Law part (constitutional law)...  that's what I've been really doing.  I outlined, and now I'm studying for that exam, my last. I'm also finishing up some written work for two other classes.  Overall, I should be done soon, and boy, I can't wait!

Ok, now off to study. 

Stitches South

Mom and I went to Stitches South yesterday and had a good time. I took a (much needed) break from studying, although it was hard to get back to work today and not cast-on or start spinning! (Exams start tomorrow) No photographs from the event, unfortunately, since the company that hosts it won't allow them. But it was nice, nonetheless.

The loot:

I think I really made my dollar stretch, although I do have to admit there were some cash infusions throughout the event. While Stitches was fun... I have to say I think SAFF is better.

I may be biased. Firstly, I'm a spinner. There wasn't much roving at Stitches.  There was some great stuff, see Ashland bay (yellow) and Lisa Souza BFL above, plus the unpurchased but much ogled the Knit Witch, Gale's Art Fibers, and SpinKnit Amia.

But the spinning wasn't the focus; mass-produced yarns I can buy at my great local yarn shop was the focus. I was very surprised by this. I mean, Stitches was held in Atlanta. But if you're in Atlanta, you can go to the great Atlanta and North Georgia area yarn shops and buy everything there! (That's not true-you can only buy most of the yarn there!) In fact, some of the biggest booths were local yarn shops. (Of course, Webs, Yarn Universe and Discount Yarn Sale were there too; see Sockotta above)

I'm all for supporting local yarn shops-heck, I do it all the time (to the detriment of my checking balance). But I was hoping for more indie dyers like SAFF. There were some awesome ones, but I was spoiled by SAFF and the amazing variety and number of small indie dyers.

I scored some dyes from Indie Dyer which was great because I got to see the colors in a sample skein and saved on shipping. I have at least two pounds of undyed roving waiting to be colored with some beautiful shades! 

Overall verdict: Fun couple of hours but no SAFF. I'll be in attendance next year, but I'm booking a hotel for SAFF too!

The Whirlwind

The whirlwind is the last few weeks of a semester in which you realize you have two papers to write, two outlines to do, a journal, a case plan, a learning appraisal, forty more internship hours, club elections and oh yeah, just a little bit more reading for class.

I am swept up in the whirlwind at the moment.

I was momentarily stunned last week when I realized my wrists hurt. Like oh my GOD hurt. They ache in the middle but over time the pain radiates into my hands. After two visits to the health center, a blood test, and a trip to Care Medical, I officially have carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists. Although pain is not a common symptom, when doing the other carpal tests, I do have the numbness associated with carpal tunnel. So the pain=carpal tunnel syndrome.

So what is a 2L to do? Pop ibuprofin, wear wrist splints at night and after class, and continue typing (and knitting). Really, what am I supposed to do? I'm sorry, but not type is not an option. Clearly I am typing now, and yes, it hurts. But I have TWO PAPERS AND TWO OUTLINES TO WRITE. Not to mention the myriad of assorted nonsense that is the other assignments. In real life (i.e. not high school or undergrad), some times you have to suck it up. This is not a pregnancy, or appendicitis or other assorted maladies that often plague law students who are a) in the prime of their young adulthood and b) so overwhelmed with stress that their body rebels in weird ways. This is just some wrist pain. 

So typing away I go. I've written 25 pages in the last three weeks, mostly in the last three days, for one paper. I've written 0 pages for the other. (That is this weekend's project). There will be more typing, and then there will be rest. 

Knitting also hurts my wrists. And my knitting usually comes at the end of the day (i.e. when I've already typed all day and my wrists already hurt). But knitting is a requirement in my life. It's stress relief. If I didn't have my projects to focus on I would stress about law school and life in general. Its a trade off: slightly more wrist pain but calm mind. Yoga would help too but I don't have the time for that during the whirlwind.

I complain, but I am very lucky. Carpal tunnel syndrome is no broken leg, or real serious injury that many people suffer from. Its a little painful, but I'll deal. And hey, the wrist brace is kind of hot. (In a really weird way-but its the little things)

On the knitting side: I have finished my third pair of socks this year (2009). My goal was to use up three more skeins, the sum total of the sock yarn I owned at the start of 2009. One skein may be out of the running as I have determined it requires a size 0 needle. There are two problems to that requirement: 1) I do not own a size 0 needle which would require at least $14 of investment money I do not have and 2) the particular pattern I liked required that I get gauge for the cables. (Absinthe from Knitty) A third problem (which I thought I solved with the pattern choice) was that the color of this yarn is a solid sage green. Solid. I don't like to knit with solid-its too boring. It took me hours to find the pattern-only to discover my gauge was much too wrong.

Oh well; here are the socks I did finish. Fruit Loops, also from an earlier edition of Knitty, in yarn purchased at Main Street.