Mail Call!

When I went on to Etsy to purchase my shawl pin a couple weeks ago I ended up spending some time looking at other stuff too. Etsy is so addictive! I somehow (heh) ended up finding someone who was destashing. (Squee!) And so I ordered one of her lots which was Brown Sheep Handpaint Originals Yarn. I picked up 4 skeins of Onyx, 2 skeins of Cranberry, and one skein of Chestnut.

I am a BIG fan of Brown Sheep yarn. I use it a lot. Love the feel of it, love the finished products I have made from them, and I really like the colors the yarn comes in. I used my flash on these pictures so the colors are bleached out here, but these are wonderful colors.

I have been enjoying thinking about what I want to make with this yarn. I originally thought a shawl would be very warm and wonderful, but I read that this yarn felts really well, so now I am toying with the idea of making a bag out of it. Not sure which way the wind will blow on this, but the thought process is a joy!

Monday in your face

Good Morning World. It's time for Insomniac Theater! Woke up at 1:00 this morning and could NOT get back to sleep. This always makes me so very happy. Nothing like starting out the week exhausted and crabby. **sigh**

I am pretty sure my neighbors don't appreciate my sleepless nights either. I put Emma out when I got out of bed at 2:12 this morning and she immediately ran to the very back of our yard and started barking like a mad dog. Nothing carries on a cold winter night like the sound of a dog barking. Then the sound of a tired woman in owl pajamas shivering in the doorway making kissing noises and whisper yelling "Emma!" and shaking the treat container. Yup. People know when I am up.

Then Emma curls up on her bed in the den while I amuse myself with the Internet, sighing a lot and getting excited for food every time I get up and go to the kitchen for more coffee. On a normal day when I wake up, it means the food will happen for the cat and the dog very soon. So when I wake up hours early - it's chaos. The cat has a timed feeder because she used to wake me up when she thought it was time to eat by standing on my sleeping form. Then the claws would come out when just walking on me didn't work. (ouch.) Then she figured out that I put my glasses on when I would get up, so she took to walking to my night stand and batting my glasses on the floor. That's when we decided to get a battery operated feeder.

 Here she is at 2:40 in the morning licking the empty bowl. She pretty much walks around glaring at me all morning because the food is not happening. Add to that I took her out of the bedroom where my husband is sleeping - so she can't go into that room. She will make the occasional walk to the bedroom door and claw frantically at it hoping she can get in. That makes for a fun game too. I will go and shush her away and when she hears me retreat and start typing again she will start back up.

Good times.

So that is what my Insomnia mornings look like. Add to that me wondering how early I can go into work for the day so I can leave early as I know I will be a wreck by around noon when I am up at this hour. I generally don't go in early on insomnia mornings - but I think I will today.

Insomnia days are just so hard. My brain is moosh. I can't generally knit much because I do bad things to patterns when I try. Any form of exercise is out. My diet takes a hit because I don't know when to eat and get confused about hunger and tired. (If I get up at 1:00 and eat breakfast at 4:00 do I eat lunch at 10:00 and and dinner at 3:00 and then second dinner at 7:00????) And if I go into work early THAT will throw everything off too. And if I go in early and come home early can I or should I take a nap or am I better off just going to bed early and trying to get a long sleep so I don't end up not being able to sleep a second night in a row? Meh. I know when I can't sleep it's going to be a long long day.

Wish me luck!

Award Winning! That's me!

The wonderful and awesome Nicky from the wonderful and awesome blog KnittingNix nominated me for a Liebster Blog award! This is my first Blog award!  WOOT! Thank you so much Nicky! Anyone who reads my blog and hasn't yet read Nicky's blog, I highly recommend it! Wonderful sense of humor and just a really nice person. One of those blog's where you just feel like you could call the person up and meet them for coffee and while away the hours chatting and knitting together.

Now here are the Liebster Blog award rules. It is really simple and in a nutshell, pass it forward. You link to the blog that nominated you. Then you choose 5 blogs of your choice to pass the award on to. These blogs have to have less than 200 followers to be eligible for the Liebster Blog Award. Share a link to your chosen blogs and lastly, but not least, display the Liebster Blog Award button on your blog.

What I love about this is that it's a chance to reach out to bloggers that I enjoy the works of and let them know "Hey! I read all that stuff you write! I love it when you stick a barbie in a sock and take a picture of it! I love it when you take pictures of your dogs and share them!" etc... It's just a wonderful way to say - one blogger to another - I appreciate you sharing your world with me!

Even though KnittingNix is one of the blogs I read all the time - this is a Pay it forward thing - so I will spring from Nicky's kindness and will nominate these 5 Blogs:

1. HippyWitch Crafts I have only just started to get to know Lori, but I am really enjoying her blog! She makes the most awesome Toadstools and sells them in her Etsy shop. (My goal is to buy one some day. I just love them!) She is crafty and clever and I really enjoy her blog!

2. Zeal for Everything is another blog I read all the time. I have a crush on her two dogs Schrödinger and Isabelle and I just love the honesty of her blog. She puts stuff out there and she inspires me to be true to my own voice.

3. Kids and Capers is chicken soup for my soul. Her blog always has something that comforts me - be it some fresh baked muffins or some wonderful crochet project she is whipping up. She also has an amazing amount of blogs she follows - and I can spend many hours just jumping from blog to blog to blog. Excellent Blog-taste!

4. Another favorite is Knit Sew Hooked. She always has something fun on the needles! She has been a little quiet lately, but I really enjoy reading her blog and seeing what she is up to.

5. And last but not least PDX Princess. Her blog has so much going on! I love her blog posts but I am also always checking out her books (her taste runs Vampy like mine - so I scope out possible future reads) and I like seeing what she is watching on TV. She really broadcasts her life and makes full use of the media out there to do it. Plus she has awesome cat pictures and yarn p0rn. What's not to love?!?!

I read all the blogs I nominated and enjoy them very much. If you have a moment stop in and take a look at them - maybe you will find a new blog to love too!

A Better Standing Ovation

Back in December I knit the pattern Ovate which is a paid pattern on Ravelry. I loved the pattern except for one thing: The tacky closure. Maybe it was the toggles I chose? Maybe it was my lack of mad skill in the crochet department? Whatever the reason - it looked like crap. I found myself not wanting to wear my fancy Rasta shawl that I was so excited about. Sad face.

See how sad that looks? It didn't look much better with me in it, let me tell you. And honestly, I don't think it looked that great on other people's either. I feel like people really had to work to get it to look nice in their Ravelry pictures. Maybe it's just not my style. I can't pull off the belted sweater look either. **Shrugs**

Enter some serious Etsy browsing and the discovery of a shop called WireDreamsDesign. I found a wonderful shawl pin there that is pearl colored on one side and black on the other. It's made out of Polymer Clay and the "pin" is a recycled knitting needle. FABULOUS!

As you can see there is a pattern in the clay as well - making it just a little more special. I only took pictures of the pearl colored side, as I didn't think the black side would show up well in pictures.

I am soooooo happy with this purchase and think this is a wonderful upgrade to the shawl. I have added this shop to my favorites and suspect I will be getting more shawl pins from them in the future. Did I mention they are really affordable too?  Awesome!

Happy happy joy joy!

Frustration - Indeed!

So this morning I was plodding through my e-mail and saw that there was a new post from a Blogger I enjoy Zeal for Everything entitled Frustration. This poor wonderful woman has been reading my Blog and trying to leave me comments - only to be denied! Argh! I feel like I turned on the lights and lit up the decorations for Trick or Treaters on Halloween and then locked the door and fell sound asleep.

I am touched that she would take the time to let me know A) That she has been reading my blog and enjoys it! and B) That she hasn't been able to comment! I know I have been frustrated with this on many a blog. Back in Blogtoberfest, I had many blogs I tried to comment on and found that I couldn't. FRUSTRATION! Sadly I didn't have the brains about me to send a note to most of those bloggers to let them know I tried to leave a comment and could not.

So here is the deal. I am not a techie gal. I would love to be savvy - but in truth - I am pretty plug and play. I have checked my comments settings in Blogger and made sure I had it set for anyone (including anonymous peeps) can leave a comment. I have the settings as friendly as I can get them.

Next I went to google and typed in "people aren't able to leave comments on my blog" and started looking for advice. The blogger help pages weren't too useful. ( I checked there too) But I did find this one page that I thought was interesting. There are some big words here that are a little over my head, but I tried to follow the best I could. The Site is called "The Real Blogger Status: What Blogger Won't Tell You" and because of the advice here I changed my comments from embedded to a pop up window. Not sure if this is going to do the trick or not? Not sure if I just screwed up my blog and now nobody can comment? That would be so Jenny. :)

So I am going to keep trying to get this right. If any of you wonderful bloggers out there have had this issue and have some advice for me I would love to hear it. And if you try and leave me a comment and cannot, give me a yell?

As for me, I am going to keep trying to learn more about blogging, about how to have a good blog (one where people can comment!) and I will let other bloggers know when I cannot leave a comment on their Blog! I will pay it forward! I will also be checking my Third Party Cookie status in my Internet Explorer settings. Just have to figure out where they are.....

Thank you again to the wonderful Zeal for Everything.

Under the weather and the weather isn't good

Actually the weather is just fine today - but it IS January in Minnesota - so it's all relative.

I have been feeling poorly for a few days now. Sleep and hot showers seem to be the prescription for relief. I just have one of those awful headaches that kill me. I know I just need to get that sinus pressure to release and all will be well - but waiting for it just stinks. **sigh** Or maybe I just need to get used to my new eyeglass prescription? New eyeglasses don't make your ears squishy though. Maybe both? Argh.

So I have been a slug most of this week. Eating pretty much anything that I happen across and trying to sleep as much as possible. I guess we all need those down times once in awhile. I am grateful I haven't had a bad illness this year. (knock on wood!) I had some pretty bad ick for the last couple of winters, so maybe this year I will escape with just a head cold here and there. I would be happy with that!

So yeah. Not real exciting stuff around here. I watched three episodes of a show on the History Channel yesterday called Modern Marvels. The show is kind of addictive! I watched an episode on Nuts, and episode on Cheese and part of an episode on Food Service for Large Groups. That last one showed how they handle feeding people on a submarine and at a football stadium! Pretty amazing stuff. I love shows like this where you get to learn stuff you never even thought about. Opens your eyes a little bit. And who knows - maybe someday I will win a trivia contest!

Burly Spun Mari 2: The Resurrection

I am continuing on with my effort to sort out my knit goods. My latest reclaiming was a hat I made in 2008 out of Burley Spun. I liked the hat - but again - top down construction made it kind of pointy and weird. Add to this that it's lime green - Totally rocked out an elf thing here.

I didn't take awesome pictures of this the first go around - but you can get a sense of the fit of this hat on my Roger Head. Keep in mind Roger does not have my insane big hair to tuck under this hat either - so you can imagine how high this sat on my head. Not exactly keeping the old ears warm.

This next shot shows a much more relaxed hat. The pointy top is pretty much gone and the length is much better. I did the Eucalin soak for about an hour and then rolled it in a towel to get most of the water out and then stretched it onto good old Roger here. It dried in a couple days.

And lastly - here is me wearing the hat. It fits over my giant crazy hair and is pretty much the perfect size now. So much more wearable!