Meme

I've been tagged by Amelia.
So now, after procrastinating for a few days, I'm finally getting around to answering it (though I'm not sure I'll be able to tag so many people in turn).

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?

Graduating from high school (has it been 10 years already?) and working as a dishwasher/waitress/cook at Granny's Cafe. That first summer out of high school was one of the most beautifully, swelteringly-hot summers I can remember here on the peninsula- it was lovely.

2. 5 things on my to-do list today?

1- Finish plying the skein I'm working on.
2- Go to the Library and pick up another audio book to listen to: The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan (from the Wheel of Time Series). It's a wonderful series so far.
3- Go to the bank.
4- Trip to Walmart (not my favorite thing :() for plastic bins. Paige and I are re-organizing her room as it keeps getting progressively worse and I also have to reorganize my own stash- it's getting out of control and has been taking up most of the spare bedroom. In my defense, it isn't just yarn, it's yarn, roving, as well as all my spinning and dyeing stuff.
5- Return some video rentals (I rented P.S. I Love You, and while it was a good movie, I sobbed like a hysterical idiot to the point of my husband becoming uncomfortable and leaving the room- be warned.)

3. Snacks I enjoy...

I enjoy most things that aren't really good for me. I love chocolate, just about any kind of crunchy snacks (vegetables included), ice cream and home made cake (I grew up disliking cake because we only ever had store-bought or boxed cake mixes, but after I when to work for Bonny's Bakery and had real cake, I learned to love it and have become quite good at baking my own. I have the waistline to prove it). Also, being intensely addicted to candied ginger (I would- and have- eaten it by the pound- I'm addicted to the burn), I just recently discovered a treat that has become an instant favorite: candied ginger-style Turkish delight... Yummmmm...

4. Things I would do if i were a billionaire...

I would probably give most of it away (at least I hope that I would). What could one person possibly need with all that money? I would definitely take care of my family, making sure they all had debt-free homes. I'd like to make sure all of the children in my family were given the opportunity to go to college (I might like like to go to college myself, actually). I would definitely like to see the world, too.

5. Places I've lived...

I have lived only in Washington state. I've lived in Port Angeles for the last 22-23 years. I was born in Port Angeles, but while I was younger I lived in Aberdeen, Hoquiam (not sure if that is how that one is spelled- it doesn't look right), Tacoma and Olympia. We moved around a lot.

6. Peeps I want to know more about...

Maureen- Tag, you're it (If you choose to participate).

More...

It's amazing how things can be seemingly quiet for so long and then all of sudden- whoosh- things are moving along quickly.

When I first began putting my yarns on Etsy, it felt as if an age passed before I made my first sale. Now things are really moving. As a result, I've been putting in almost more spinning time than I'm comfortable with. Almost.

The shop has been empty for a few days while I've been working on this.

This is the first half of this (the one on top) spun up. It's another Navajo 3-ply fingering/DK weight- merino sock yarn. This half came out to be about 179yds. It has blues, greens, oranges, yellows and violet. It will knit up into lovely striped socks.

After the second half is finished, I'm going to be working on a custom project for someone and then I'm going to crank out a few more two-plies from these SW merino rovings.

This first one came out different than expected. The pink areas were the result of some dark grey dye. I was a little surprised, but it's still quite pretty and I'm very interested to see how it spins up.

This second roving is one purposely dyed, in hopes of recreating a roving/yarn from another etsy seller that I desperately wanted, but missed out on. If it spins up the way I hope it does, I'm going to hoard it for myself.

And this last roving, while very pretty, I'm not entirely interested in spinning myself, so I think this may be the first actual roving that I add to my shop (which will likely happen at the next listing).



Adding 3-4 hand-dyed rovings to the shop along with each handspun I list may enable me to have a least a little something in the shop in between wheel projects. I'm beginning to see that with getting the house ready for sale, I'm really going to have to rein-in my wheel time to make time for all that needs to be done.

I'm trying to keep in mind that once the house is sold and we've bought a new place, moved and settled in, I may have more time available to be at the wheel than I'm prepared for. So for now it might be wisest just to be content with doing a little less.

Heeeere fishy-fishy-fishy...

Just finished another skein. This one is 260+ yards of 2-ply fingering/DK weight BFL yarn. This is the first time I've worked with good BFL. I only ordered 8oz of it to try, because I've spun BFL before and (by comparison with this new stuff) it was awful stuff to work with. Now I wish I'd bought more. Besides, this BFL spins up superfast compared to merino, which might give me a fair shot at getting more yarns up in the Etsy store more often.



It's dyed in blues, dark green (which came out more of a blue-green) and orange. It reminds me of a happy little goldfish swimming in its bowl. So, of course, I called it 'Goldfish Bowl'.



I just listed it yesterday evening and I really need to get crackin' on the wheel. It's the only thing listed in the shop right now and it's lonely. I'm very glad that things finally picked up, but I'm beginning to think I'm going to have to start adding a few of my hand-dyed rovings to my shop just so it isn't bare. Mind you- I'm not complaining.

Exhausted...

The last few weeks have gone by so fast . It seems like my little girl just started preschool and next week is her preschool graduation. On one hand, I'm going to miss those few precious quiet hours that I had by myself, but on the other I think we just might get to sleep in a little bit more around here. (The idea of this thrills me- I've been living on barely any sleep for months on end and I think I've had my fill of it. It's time to have eight hours again.)

About a month ago I purchased a lovely bit of All Spun Up superwash merino spinning fiber, and somewhat impatiently, I managed to squeeze in enough spinning time to finish this skein for myself.



It came out looking very interesting. Almost like algae or snakeskin. It had barely dried when I began turning it into a pair of Monkeys. It's a beautiful pattern. This is the first pair of socks I'm working on for myself out of my own 2-ply handspun (I already have a pair of 3-ply handspun socks in the works) and it's encouraging to me to see how lovely it's knitting up.



These socks were a very special treat. I don't often spin yarn for myself- particularly not when I have a lot of spinning fiber and dyeing to do for my Etsy shop (right now I've got a pound of SW merino and 1/2 pound of BFL I'm trying to get through for the shop) but I'm glad I've taken the time for this one. It's so worth it to take a break from producing things for sale to make a little treasure for yourself.

Hummingbird

This week has proven to be surprisingly productive, considering the limited amount of spinning time I've had to work with. This morning I was able to list this skein...



It's 2.8oz and just over 262yds of handspun/hand-dyed, Navajo 3-ply merino sock yarn. It's slightly thicker than I'd usually spin a sock yarn (between fingering and DK weight). It's soft and lovely. I'm calling this striped sock yarn, which has a 3-color repeat pattern of magenta/violet, pale/dark blue and jade/myrtle green, by the name Hummingbird.

So with that yarn now listed (I have a whopping total of 2 items currently listed- Ha-ha-ha) I'm off to get some housework done early and to hopefully squeeze in some more spinning time.