... laughing too hard!

My strange but thoughtful husband decided to treat me this year on our 2nd anniversary - knowing what he did last year and knowing the types of gifts that were possible for this anniversary I was more than a little wary of what lovely gift His Nerdiness would bestow upon me.

However, I was pleasantly surprised by a very thoughtful gift - far better than my own nice dinner and marital relations - sans the relations part gift to him (he insists the very best gift is NOT to spend his money on a gift, it makes for somewhat boring holidays!). Observe his offerings:

Two lovely 8 oz. portions of cotton sliver and... a Sanskrit newspaper?

Addressing known quantities - the lady at The Woolery told Peter the combed cotton sliver was very easy to spin and recommended the natural (which I can dye) and the new colorway as good gifts. I must say I concur. The hand on that stuff is just great - buttery soft, slightly lustrous, and indeed it looks very easy to handle for being such a short, finicky fiber. I have never actually spun pure cotton before, or even a blend, so this will be QUITE a learning experience and I am looking forward to beginning on the Terra Cotta very soon. The pictures don't do it much justice -in person it's a more rich pumpkin-orange shade with some blue blended in and coral and yellow undertones, much more multidimensional than my picture would suggest.

The natural sliver is just that - plain, vanilla colored cotton. I plan on saving that for a specific project - all my dyes are Jacquard Acid dyes and not meant for plant fibers, so in addition to getting some additional acid dyes (my primary set are not true primaries and I am unhappy with the muddiness of some of the colors) I need a small set of Procion dyes for any cellulose fibers. I have been meaning to pick these up for over a year but since my spinning/dyeing has been somewhat on hold it hasn't been a priority.

Either way the instant gratification will best be had with the commercially dyed top, so that will be what I play with. I am going to do a dk/sport weight 2 ply, I think, and figure out what to turn it into later.

Now - onto the Sanskrit bundle. Let's investigate the intriguing packaging a bit more, shall we?

These were something quite unfamiliar to me - I actually had to investigate to figure out what they were. Turns out, they're what I suspected them to be - traditional Indian puni (also spelled pooni, gotta love phonetic linguistics) usually spun on a charka wheel. It's the normal way of prepping combed, processed cotton for ease of use. They caught me quite by surprise, as the only cotton I HAVE seen for spinning is either fluff and not rolled, or combed and processed into sliver like the first two. I must admit I am a little intimidated by the sheer alien nature of the prep as well as the fiber, but I am up for the challenge.

Let's look a little closer at the prep:

For all of it's otherness and ethnic flavor, the puni is really nothing more than a small cotton rolag. This shouldn't surprise me - despite slight regional variances and cultural adaptation textiles and their processing is extremely simplistic, and very much a universal concept. Rolags are a wonderful way of prepping animal fibers for more loft (fluffiness) and therefore more warmth. This prep is also ideal for the nature of cotton, though it differs wildly from most animal fibers - the smooth nature and short staple of the cotton is counteracted slightly by a prep that slightly musses the fibers and overlaps them a bit, allowing for both a smooth draft but one that is slightly longer and more cohesive than just spinning tufts of the cotton would allow.

Spinning the cotton makes me a bit nervous - it is usually done on wheels specifically for it (the aforementioned charka wheel) but my wheel can still do it, with some care. Because cotton is a short stapled fiber, usually between 1-2 inches, and very slippery compared to the natural 'tooth' wool has on it (between the cuticle and natural crimp of wool it likes to tangle on itself a bit), it can be a challenge to spin. From what I gather (and this makes sense based on the properties of cotton I have observed) I need to set my wheel to it's highest ratio, around 14:1, and set my tension VERY low so that the bobbin doesn't try to draw up the fiber before it has enough twist in it to hold together and tear it apart. It will involve a VERY short draw with my hands and a lot of treadling, but I am almost positive I won't have too much trouble with the cotton as long as I adjust my technique and equipment properly.

It's after 2 am so while I wanted to get some of the sliver on the wheel tonight, alas I shall wait until tomorrow to deal with it. This fiber, of course, makes me long for accessories I have wanted since buying the wheel but cannot afford at this time, but I think I can make do without them. It's amazing though, with my old wheel I never moved the ratio and now that I have a better machine and can really WORK with it I find myself wanting to expand it's capabilities very specifically and intentionally to the project I am working on at the time. It's like have a single speed bike versus a 20 speed. Suddenly, you CAN do the hill on the middle speed but it's far from optimal and you have CHOICES now!

In summary, I have been sitting on this gift long enough. I am VERY grateful to Peter for grabbing it for me and I look forward to posting my progress on it soon. I might as well squeeze in as much in the way of fibery goodness as I can before my hands are doubly full with children and I am just too tired to worry about anything but sleep.

So I finally located pictures I have been meaning to post for several months - and MAN are they poor quality!

Way back, many moons ago in Juneau, I used some of my Blue Faced Leicester fiber and dyed three lots - 4 oz. in a pink/maroon shade, another 4 oz. in an autumnal shade set, and the last 4 oz. in a green/blue/purple marble. They turned out LOVELY...

...and subsequently got shoved in a box and forgotten about.

Well, when I got my new wheel (lovely Suzie that she is!) I wanted to spin something, and rummaging through my fibers it turns out the PERFECT candidate was this green/blue/purple BFL. So I set to work METICULOUSLY spinning it, as evenly as possible and under a twist probably twice what I have always applied. The singles were GORGEOUS. And given some study I'd done on Abby's blog I decided a much tighter ply as well as good wet finishing would really suit my spinning better and improve the quality, wear, and overall ease of use.

My previous spinning was fast, but not particularly refined in terms of technique. I churned it out but it wasn't really anything more than middle of the road handspun. So I decided to try working more on my basic technique in drafting and really getting that twist in there rather than just speed spinning, and going for a nice, tight ply to prevent splitting and drifting of the fiber as well. I must say I was VERY successful, I think that this is my most beautiful skein to date in terms of overall quality. And can I shout off the rooftops the IMMENSE difference a quality wheel with tight tolerances and clean components makes to spinning? it was so much more pleasurable to spin well, not to mention EASIER to produce a much nicer skein with the same time allotted. The Ashford Traveler I had before was a good entry level machine, but I'd advise anyone to save their pennies a few months longer and start out with a good tool, because it can save LOTS of frustration. Not to mention that getting a wheel that will only suit your needs for a year or two and have lots of problems during that time isn't a very good use of funds - I must advocate waiting and getting a nicer machine.

Back to the skein at hand - it's pretty, but more important than that it is of very fine quality, a much tighter twist but still balanced to maintain the buttery softness and springy hand that Blue Face Leicester is known for. It is far and away my favorite wool to work with, and I hope it holds up for good wear.

(really, the pictures don't do it justice!)

I decided to send this and some fiber to my friend Katie for a birthday present. She is a great knitter and having turned 30 and just had I baby I figured it was a worthy gift. Now I am not sure she ever did receive it, but I never got a return package so I assume all went well. I figured she'd use it to edge a hat (or for a baby hat) or perhaps some gauntlets. But due to my general lack of time for knitting now I knew it would have a great home with her.

I really want to spin more, but Callie is FASCINATED with the wheel and when it moves she loves sticking her little hands right in the footman or grabbing at the scotch tension and messing with it. It's neither enjoyable nor safe to attempt spinning around her. While I SHOULD be in bed when everyone else is I do have a habit of staying up late. I am seriously contemplating working on some spinning when she and Peter are in bed but I have yet to really decide on that. Either way, it IS enjoyable, the wheel is a dream (and worth every penny spent on it!) and the yarn turned out great, I'd love to replicate my previous efforts.

Either way, this spinning effort needed recording and I have been meaning to do so since December! I am a procrastinator, but that's bad even by my standards! It's lovely yarn, though the pictures suck, and I was proud to give it to someone who I know will make more use of it than me.

But I do miss petting it. Soooo soft!

GAH! So I had my 33 week appointment today. I lost 3 pounds, so I have only gained 2 this whole pregnancy. Glucose and protein were good. Blood pressure was 110/70.

Baby's position? Breech.

Yeah.

Callie did the same thing around the same time, but I am so mad. If I wasn't a VBAC or had a proven pelvis a breech birth would be no problem to attempt. But the midwife said hell no, no way and that there was pretty much no one in town in their right mind who'd allow for a breech trial, due to the level of complications I could experience.

GRR!

Fortunately it's not THAT big of a deal - the baby could easily turn again and I am expecting them to, I can do pelvic tilts and spinning babies exercises, and the midwife AND OB will try their hand at an external version at 37 weeks should breach still be an issue. It's just a setback I wasn't desiring, especially when the baby had significantly dropped for a few days before disengaging (also eerily like his/her sister). It's something I was hoping to not have to worry about - but oh well.

The midwife did a quick ultrasound to verify the baby's position and check my amniotic fluid levels- they were pretty high with Callie and apparently high with this baby as well, which could have contributed to the ability to flip around. She asked if I knew the sex and oh my gosh girls, I was SO tempted, so VERY tempted to find out what the baby was. Especially since she'd asked me about whether or not we'd circumcise if the baby was a boy. But BARELY, just barely I held onto my willpower. It was a tiny screen on a portable unit, and since she was looking for the baby's head and butt it would have been SO easy, but I managed to resist the HUGE temptation of finding out and just not telling DH.

Really everything else was great, the midwife is a little worried I'm not eating enough (this was the same one that cautioned me to gain as little weight as possible because it would complicated my VBAC... you can't see my eyes rolling) but I assured here I'm just not that hungry but when I am I try to do well with my protein intake and calcium. The drive over to the birth center was SUPER stressful with cops, construction, and tourists abounding, but somehow I still managed to turn out a good appointment, breech aside.

Man, I had such a bad feeling yesterday when I was feeling painfully strong kicks against my cervix, I just knew the lump under my ribs was a head. Grrr. But we'll see if we can't flip this baby by my next appointment.

*%&(#)$ *($#!!!!!! Ornery kids.

So.


Roughly 6.5 weeks left, give or take two, in this pregnancy. Am I feeling woefully unprepared? Eh, a bit. Honestly it's all just a little surreal. We haven't done very much to prepare. I'm doing my Hypnobabies somewhat fitfully, due to the need for sleep, but I think it is helping.

We still need to get the cosleeper back from the grandparents - Callie has been using it there, in playpen form, as her crib. We will swap a Graco playpen for that one. The spare bedroom is still a storage unit with a queen sized bed - it won't become an actual nursery for at least three months or so, until we feel the baby is ready to be in his/her own room without needing a lot of attention (or tons of feedings!) each night. Callie was a normal sleeper, not great but not terrible either, and she had a fairly painless transition to her own crib by around 4 months old. Truth be told she still didn't sleep through the night consistently until, eh, three weeks ago? We don't force it, but it's definitely a play by ear thing. She also slept BETTER and deeper in her own room and that influenced the decision to move her at that age.

If we're lucky and this one sleeps through the night by a few weeks or even a month, or doesn't seem to wake fitfully, I am NOT opposed to transitioning sooner. If it is a boy I may hold off because the risk of SIDS is elevated in boys and cosleeping lessens that risk, but we'll see. Either way, a nursery is no big hurry, and heck, Callie's STILL isn't done!

This pregnancy has been fairly free of notable complications. No sustained blood pressure issues, no totally abnormal pain other than the same stuff I had with Callie - misaligned sacrum and some diastasis issues with my pubic symphisis joint. My blood sugar was great, not even indicative of prediabetes in a non-pregnant woman (and the tolerances are much higher for pregnant women, so making the NORMAL cutoff is particularly great). This baby also feels like they've dropped in my pelvis and engaged a little bit, which is a relief since he/she was transverse the other day and it was... unpleasant. There's no reason to suspect at this point that there will be any complications at all. Granted, there was no problem with Callie at this point either, other than flipping around breech, but I am hoping things will continue as normal right into a spontaneous, predictable labor pattern.

One can hope!

I'm just puttering along this time, trying not to be anxious and to enjoy it as much as I can. The soreness makes it a LITTLE hard, but I can honestly say I am having more fun this pregnancy than with Callie's. Even with how badly her birth turned out the fear of the unknown kind of robbed me of a lot of joy, especially at the beginning and very end of hers. This time around I know what's normal and what isn't and how BRIEF this period is. I am really enjoying myself a lot, especially seeing what a great little person each baby can grow up to be. Callie and her antics enhance my enjoyment this time around - I know what I'm fighting for. I am expecting an uneventful birth this time around, and one much closer to what I wanted with Callie - fortunately for me the odds are in my favor for that!

Umm... I'm short. We know this. Being short means I measure ahead. In this case it's 3-4 weeks ahead. So while I am 33 weeks I am carrying around a 37 week belly. Great, huh? No WONDER I am sore. There's just no place for the baby to go but out. Either way, the belly is a well-established fixture and one Callie LOVES to kick at any occasion, usually while I am feeding her (I can't get close enough to get the spoon in her mouth without putting it in foot range) and changing her (while preventing her from grabbing her poop!). She's going to be in for quite a surprise when a playmate comes home and doesn't go away!

I am still only up a whopping 5 pounds this pregnancy, and at this point the baby weighs around five and a half pounds and is close to full length, around 18-20 inches long. So the baby's weight, plus the weight of the placenta and amniotic fluid - yes, I have technically LOST weight. No problems there, I wish I could lose more without compromising said baby's nutrition. But there is something awesome to be said for pushing out a baby and automatically being at or below your weight goal. Stepping on that scale after Callie was born was quite sweet indeed!

It's a bad shot, but you get the idea. I don't LOOK big but considering the shirt swims on me and my boobs are a good 44F now, the belly does stick out quite impressively compared to my taller, smaller-carrying peers.

Yay baby bellies! I have an appointment tomorrow morning and I'll update if anything significant comes about! And yes, my mirror is filthy, the lighting is bad, my shirt is wrinkled and the entire thing is blurry. There's a reason photography is NOT my hobby!

Did my makeup for a fundraiser at the Sourdough Mining Co. tonight. Same shirt as Sunday, completely different color choice. I was very happy with how this turned out - subtle colors but still bold. Can I re-emphasize how AWESOME the foundation makes my skin look (flawless, instead of a nightmare) and how completely easy to blend the colors are? Yes, much love to Aromaleigh here.

Awe on lid and crease.
StillinHollywood on crease, well blended.
Blackout Indelible Liner on top lid.
StillinHollywood wetlined over the Blackout and on the outside corner of bottom lid.
Corset on cheeks.
Nude lipstick.

Bad lighting in our bathroom, but this is the makeup several hours after applying and it still looks good:

Open and closed eye views:

... because, quite frankly, I can't do anything fibery with Callie's invading fingers and habit of eating everything, edible or not.

So I will blog a bit about another love of mine - makeup. I like it. A lot. Despite looking frumpy most days I actually really enjoy being creative with mine and seriously considered doing it for a living before deciding to come up to Alaska, instead, and save makeup artistry for my this-or-bust career. But I have faced some REAL challenges - most notably finding a foundation that is the right coverage, the right shade, and the right texture for my skin that won't break me out. Tall order when you're pasty as I am and quite scarred and ruddy.

For about four years now I have had a love/hate relationship with Aromaleigh Cosmetics. I began ordering from them in 2004, and they didn't even offer USPS shipping to Alaska, it was UPS only (and I emailed about it and I think I single-handedly created a policy) and the selection of products was quite a bit more modest. Kristen, the owner, is constantly expanding and innovating with DOZENS of quality, beautiful products that can suit every taste from grandma to goth. Even the bright, strong, bold colors are immensely wearable because of the depth and quality of the mineral makeup. It's amazing.

The hate relationship came in this way - foundation matching. Kristen offers the BEST selection of mineral foundations of the internet, I am convinced, and they're very simple to understand- named for their color variant, like level 1 nude or level 1 pink (1N or 1P) and graduate all the way up to level 5, in yellow, linen, neutral, cool, pink, and warm with some additional combos of each color in a 50/50 split with linen (which is just a straight beige base). ADDITIONALLY she has some lighter shades for those of us who are ghastly pale, Alabaster and Ghost. She allows for cheap ($2) samples so you can try each and mix and match until you've found your perfect blend. Thing is, so many of us, myself included, have been so confused about our REAL undertones for so long we don't know where to begin, and custom mixing foundation at home seems very scientific and daunting, even though minerals make it easy.

So I muddled along with what I THOUGHT was my correct shade, 1N, for three years on and off. I loved what they did to my skin but it never seemed to match in the sunlight, too dark and too orange. But going pinker just made things worse. So I went back and forth between Aromaleigh and store brands, always coming back hoping to love it but always feeling funky in it. I just never got all the way on board.

Recently, being pastier than ever here at our home I decided to head on an epic quest, once again, to find the PERFECT foundation. I went back to Aromaleigh's site invigorated and ready to try again. I actually READ the amazing forum there which is a WEALTH of knowledge and discovered that the problems I was having with 1N were easily remedied - my skin tone, shockingly enough, was most likely lighter and more yellow, so I needed to try the warm, linen, and yellow blends in that level and possibly lighten then with some ghost (which is pure, warm white) to find the right match. So I ordered some samples. 1W (warm) was too orange still, though better. Ooookay, next. I tried 1YL, a 50/50 blend of the yellow undertone and the beige undertone... NOPE! Too pink. Warily I tried straight 1Y, the yellowest color they offer. Shock of shocks it was a near perfect tonal match but just a smidge too dark. So I tapped a bit of my old 1N into the mix and created, overall, about a 90/10 blend of 1Y/GX, just a slightly more complex version of the yellow shade lightened a smidge with the white. PERFECT.

I was transformed.

All the sudden I remembered why I LOVED makeup so much but had hated it since I hit Alaska. In California I had enough color that store brands were an acceptable match, even with the wrong undertone I didn't look like I was wearing a mask. But when I needed to go more pale EVERY imperfection in the formula was obvious. If the coverage was heavy enough my pores looked huge and I looked like I was made up. The sheer formulas blended better but my scarred, acne-prone skin showed through even with concealer. Pregnancy made my normally acceptable skin much worse, and so the need for good makeup was amplified even more. Aromaleigh is the most variable coverage and perfect shade match available. You can apply it with a brush for some sheer evening up of tone. You can apply several layers with a brush for better coverage. You can apply it damp and get a totally different finish. You can apply it with a flocked sponge and get full coverage in as many layers as you need. And as long as you don't put too much on in each layer? Flawless, you look PERFECT.

It's a miracle company, with MUCH better prices than the other mineral makeup companies but an added bonus - their formula lacks bismuth oxychloride which is what gives most other companies, like Bare Escentuals, their glowy 'white' look and silky texture. Thing is, it's a HUGE irritant to my skin and many others, it makes me break out and turn bright red with rashes, and MOST mineral foundations have a LOT of it. Not Aromaleigh. Additionally, not having this ingredient makes their foundations extremely matte, so you can ALWAYS add a finishing powder for dewy glow or shine, but if you don't want it? It's not there! They also make two formulation, Voile and Glissade. Viole is the stripped down basic formula, good for MOST people. I am one of those rare people that itch and get dry skin with that formulation, so Kristen in her magnanimity created Glissade, a coated version of Voile. Because the minerals are coated they don't interact with skin at all so they CAN'T dry me out and irritate my skin. Thus, Glissade is my formulation.

But in getting into the wonderful forum there and getting inspired by the sheer VOLUME of eye, cheek, and lip colors as well as finishing powers, eyeliners, skin care you name it... I got hooked. With the right foundation suddenly EVERYTHING seemed more fun. I looked flawless and put-together on my canvas, so I had inspiration to add paint again, so to speak. And since sampling is SO cheap and the quantities are SO generous, I made orders for eye colors and cheek colors as well. And you know what? Armed with my proper shade and a new great face they all looked FABULOUS. I haven't had this much fun playing with makeup since I was a teen. Yes, I am short on time with the baby and this one to come, but it feels GOOD to be made up, I feel prettier and less frumpy, I enjoy looking at myself in the mirror a lot more. It's just.... great. A pick-me-up I really sorely needed. It's a fairly inexpensive habit overall, though getting started with the basics again did cost me a bit, but accruing a new eye shadow here and there, or a new cheek color... EASY! Plus Kristen is SO generous and such a wonderful business woman she sends 3 free samples with each order - often with colors I'd NEVER try on my own but most of them look amazing on me! Just another way to broaden my horizons and have even more fun :)

So, I will probably be blogging a bit about makeup here, and with a LOT of fun doing so. It's my current interest anyway, so I feel like sharing my thoughts and experiments with you all. I also started a new gallery called Face of the Day, where I'll post some of my color combination experiments. Bear with me, I always feel fat nowadays and so I am shy about taking pictures of myself, but I WILL make an effort to at least get myself from the neck up.

And yes, a good 50 pounds of weight loss is on my agenda as a to-do before I get pregnant again. Just for my health and comfort, I am lazy and don't exercise but I have had great luck cutting back my snacking and portions greatly the past year or so, which is why I've had little gain this pregnancy. I eat healthy, but usually too much and now I have fixed that. So with God's grace and a little discipline on my part I am really hoping to get down to below or around 200. We'll see what happens. But first thing's first, getting motivated to LIKE and CARE about my appearance again. College and Callie kind of killed it, and it's time to get it back before I descend permanently into frumpy, fat motherhood. Thus far I'm doing good, so I am hopeful this will stick.

So keep an eye out for makeup related blog postings and images, I hope to have at least a look per week! I recently cut and recolored my hair as well as waxing my eyebrows, which I love, so that just contributes to the new look. I am LOVING my short, wavy-curly dark hair. I may darken it a bit more because the contrast with my newly embraced pale skin is wonderful, but having a cut that is easy to style and easy to maintain is just great and makes me feel really good. It IS expensive to get it done at the salon so I have to budget that and all other beauty purchases carefully so Peter doesn't feel the strain, but even being able to just indulge a LITTLE in myself has really made me feel better towards the end of this pregnancy.

Sorry for the novel if you made it to the end. ANY ladies reading this I HIGHLY suggest browsing through the Aromaleigh site. The quality of these cosmetics is better than anything I have tried from Lancome or Chanel, with some products being DIRECTLY comparable but far less expensive due to Kristen's low overhead. Even the brightest colors are just so wearable and fine, they layer like no other, and the investment is totally worth it as they last forever and a day (especially the eye shadows and blushes). Beautiful, affordable, and a company that is just a joy to work with? They get 5 stars from me!

My little baby is 1 year old today! Where the heck did the time go?!

Happy birthday Callie! You're a big girl now.

Then:

Now:

Some days it goes so slow but really? WHERE DID THE TIME GO?! I swear I was JUST pregnant!

In other news, 24 weeks and some days pregnant with baby #2. Otherwise known as sweet viability, and a countdown to the end. Baby is happy and healthy, kicking away from cake sugar crossing the placenta, and all is generally right with my world.

Oh, did I mention I got a 96% on my math test and have a 97% overall with just one test to go? Considering I am a complete retard with higher level math this is a HUGE victory -I have the highest grade in the class that I am aware of. WOOHOOO!!!!

*ahem* That is all.

These just made my day, and sums up what I have difficulty conveying to some of my non-married, kid-free friends beautifully.

"Homemaking--being a full-time wife and mother--is not a destructive drought of uselessness but an overflowing oasis of opportunity; it is not a dreary cell to contain your talents and skills but a brilliant catalyst to channel creativity and energies into meaningful work; it is not a rope for binding your productivity in the marketplace, but reins for guiding your posterity in the home; it is not an oppressive restrain of intellectual prowess for the community, but a release of wise instruction to your own household; it is not the bitter assignment of inferiority to your person, but the bright assurance of the ingenuity of God's plan for complementarity of the sexes, especially as worked out in God's plan for marriage; it is neither limitation of gifts available nor stinginess in distributing the benefits of those gifts, but rather the multiplication of a mother's legacy to the generations to come and the generous bestowal of all God meant a mother to give to those He entrusted to her care."

-Dorothy Kelley Patterson

No real updates from me, life goes on as it always does. Callie's getting bigger, Peter's busy with work, somehow I seem to have NO time and yet get nothing done at all. And we keep chugging along. Getting increasingly pregnant, and increasingly NERVOUS about trying to get used to a routine with TWO babies instead of just one. I know I'll manage one day at a time, but it is quite a daunting thought. Thus, I try not to think too hard about it!

My goals for the upcoming months are as follows:

1) Spend more time in daily bible study 2) Keep a cleaner house (oh geez, writing it down makes it so official) 3) Spend MUCH less time on the computer or watching TV 4) Finish my current UFO's, including my mom's sock that I owed her two Christmas's ago 5) Try a little harder to NOT be a frumpy housewife 6) Not laugh my ass off at the list I just compiled and give up before even starting.

Yeah, wish me luck!

Oh my goodness, I have been SO terrible about posting. Life has been busy pretty much from Christmas on, and with the amount of hands it takes to wrangle Callie time for fiberarts has been woefully short. She also has quite a fascination with my wheel and having fast-moving components little fingers edge towards is a recipe for a headache and a VERY mad baby, but not decent yarn.

Any free time I have late in the evening? I am taking a very difficult math class to slowly edge towards completing my Economics degree, and unlike my previous slacker days in college there is little to be gained by skipping homework in this subject. I have class day per week and a good 7-10 hours of homework in that given week to complete, and it is difficult enough that even DOING every single problem and a few extras I am just barely hanging on to comprehension. Math has such a short half-life if you're not using it regularly, and unfortunately the methods by which they teach math do not lend themselves to understanding but rather memorization, so the holes in my knowledge from too many bad classes plus too much time elapsing since my last course that followed this one has lead to quite a struggle in doing well. Fortunately I AM on top of my assignments and was one of only three A's on the last test... I am quite encouraged by that and it will be a REAL victory for me if I can complete this class with an A at the end.

All of this, plus Bible study, bell choir, midwifery appointments and generally attempting to keep a somewhat decent house keeps me quite busy. I am now 21 weeks pregnant, past the halfway point. WOOHOO! Everything on the anatomical ultrasound looks great and is linked off my daughter's site. We don't know what this baby is, nor will we announce any names until birth, but that date is slowly creeping closer.

I really have no illusions. I would LOVE to spend more time on fiber arts but my real goal, unless we hit financially hard times, is that I keep honing the hobby side of spinning and dyeing so that when my kids leave the house I can pursue industry and my own business full time. Especially since I will be homeschooling the kids there is no way I can give the proper time or FINANCES to truly running a business beyond the hobby level. Really, I'm fine with that. Of course I'd love to produce more and really enjoy the hobby but at LEAST until there are no more new babies that's kind of a pipe dream. Such is life!

An actual fibery update shall be forthcoming, I do have SOME projects I have completed that need documenting. But I figured a general update was probably in order, you know, just to explain the dead air!

Following a new hobby I have acquired, I managed to create a SUPER cute Turtle from this lovely free pattern.

These cute little crocheted creatures are called Amigurumi, or Ami, for short. They're tight single crochet animals or objects made with the goal of being "chibi", or cute and little. There is a certain style to them that is emblematic of Ami in general, but patterns such as this Turtle don't fit the rigid definition.

However, they are still quite addictive and I would say extremely cute. This little guy was the first thing I have crocheted in over two years, and for that, plus wrist problems and TEENSIE crochet hooks I am extremely proud of him. He is modeled after Tama the Turtle (Tamago Onsen) who is a flying hotsprings turtle from the anime Love Hina. He was made by specific request from Peter and despite some things I would do differently next time, I am very happy with the way he turned out.

Tama the Turtle
Yarn: leftover bits of Rowan Tweed, Cascade 220, and Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino
Crochet Hook: 2.75 mm
Creation time: roughly 8 hours

All in all a successful project. And what can I say, something quick, cute, and in compliance with my yarn diet? I am hooked!

Hmm, I am wondering to myself what kind of schedule I'd be looking at when I start spinning regularly again. I could easily sell to Skeins as I did last summer, but the markup she placed on my product made it difficult for me to price my product well and still have inventory move (a 200 yard, 1 oz skein of handspun, hand-dyed yarn should net me $30, easily, if I paid myself what my time was worth, plus overhead and shipping costs. With Nancy's markup, that skein would cost $60 to a potential buyer, and while I feel handmade items are worth the cost of the artisan, that seems excessive to me!)

There are also yarn stores in town who sell to tourists like Nancy did in Juneau, but I imagine their markup would be much the same. And I could easily just sell on this website, with little problem, except that exposure would be an issue. In a stare with foot traffic a certain level of customer flow is expected, if I just ran off the website I would need to pay for advertising on places like Knitty, as well as aggressively market myself on the handspun webrings, to get reasonable sales. That's not a bad thing, but a lot more work for me than sending it off to someone else's store as secondary product and having them mark it up. So sales either go down because of lack of exposure, or they go down because of cost prohibitives.

Nice. I am feeling the decision getting easier by the minute.

Plus, hard-core production work is easily a 40-60 hour a week affair, and while I REALLY want to spin that much, as it is my passion, I have my family (which will only get bigger) to consider. Callie takes my spare moments and munches them with her gummy smile, and I am already finding it hard to get all the chores around the house done during the daytime, having to resort to doing them in the middle of the night when nobody will interrupt.

So figuring out what is realistic work load for my situation is proving much harder than I thought. It is hard to run a good business with hobby-level time input, if I do not provide lots of selection and consistent product I will be lessening my clientele anyway, but the time involved in keeping up good stock is just..... grr.

I am a stay at home mom. I will be a homeschooling mom. These are fulltime jobs during the day and after hours, and if I am going to take care of my family all day long with no help there just isn't time to do both as it stands now. I could spin MAYBE six or seven hours a day, and run dyepots all day long. SO I could reasonably clock 30 spinning hours and 40 or 50 hours dyeing weekly (which is maybe an hour or two of actual work, the rest is just letting them perc and reduce.) That assumes I am trying to set aside 12-14 hours daily, I can only get maybe half of those to spin because of Callie's nap schedule and inability to play by herself for any length of time.

And then there's bookkeeping, maintenance of equipment, time spent packing and shipping as well as advertising, and the cost of continued acquisition of materials (the overhead on getting going again, for real and full time, is a good $1000 or so, not including the wheel replacement I need to do. To get up a good solid stock of just fiber and dye is that much.... 50 pounds of various fibers to blend, another 20 dyes, and I need a hand carder badly, which is $700-$1000, itself. It is quite an investment and one I have been reluctant to make, but if I don't start working my own blended batts up as well and hand-dyed, hand-spun top I will be losing a lot of money.

Batts for sale, just dyed and blended, make VERY good money without the time drain of spinning them up myself. It's a good two hours of work with as good a payoff (for relative time) as handspinning as well. And it is an easy way to build solid inventory if I cannot spin myself. I could, easily, just sell batts and only a skein of yarn here and there if time didn't permit. That is my alternate solution.

It really is a conundrum, and not going ANYWHERE anytime soon as we are still divvying up funds rather strictly between home improvements, student loan payments, mortgage, and the bills., Until one of those (probably the home improvements) abate a little (in maybe a month) my hands are tied as far as getting any funding together to work towards this.

grrrr. Business junk sucks.

Alas, I win.

After much wheedling and a smidge of arguing, I got Peter to concede to both wheels, as there is such a wait on the Journey Wheel that it is financially feasible. He is disgruntled, and hates committing to a purchase so far in the future, but somehow I prevailed against his 'good common sense'.


Thus, the Suzie Pro in a month and a Journey Wheel eventually.

This definitely excited me from a spinning perspective. I am so eager to work on a finer wheel than the one I own currently. Nothing to fire up production like a love fest with new equipment.

My Traveller is still badly in need of reassembling, but when it does pull itself together, as it were, I have several balls of BFL roving dyed up and waiting to be spun. If I haven't lost my touch in the months of no spinning and am decently satisfied with the quality of the yarn it will be the first skein up for sale in a year. Yay for minimal progress, I suppose.

I just wonder how much time I will really have to get spinning again. I desperately want to, but with Callie at so young and in need of so much attention, plus with Peter needing every spare moment to keep renovating the house, time just seems very short.

I suppose as I try to start spinning again, the amount of time available to me will soon become clear.

Until then, I shall revel in my wheel lust :)

The search for a new wheel continues, with lots of great options but no consensus.

My ultimate choice is a Bosworth Journey wheel.
http://www.journeywheel.com/jw.php

They are engineered extremely well, of beautiful quality, and from what I have heard and the ratios presented, extremely diverse to spin on. They are stunning, and more importantly, the ENTIRE WHEEL folds up to briefcase size, without unhooking any components. It is truly meant for travel, but completely fully functioning for home use. And the price is right.

The problem? Over 1 year wait. I can understand this, as they are each handcrafted and lovingly made, as well as extremely popular. My quandary? I want instant gratification. I want to replace the rickety, slow, oil-sucking, cheaply made Ashford Traveller that I have nearly outspun with the levels of production I used during the summer. It can be worked with, reassembled from it's cannibalized state we reduced it to for the big move, and I can live with it that long for a wheel that lovely... but really, I'd rather not. Especially with it's competitor in mind.

Said competitor is the Majacraft Suzie Pro.
http://www.majacraft.co.nz/wheels/suzie_pro.php

With it's necessary extras is is almost the same price as the Journey wheel, and a beautiful, strong, durable, fast production wheel that I have heard nothing but good things about. They are also handcrafted, but on a factory rather than workshop scale, and I can get my grubby paws on one as soon as hubby puts aside the money, which will be next month. You see, I am owed a new wheel for a Birthday present (said birthday being May 12... yes, long past but we had a baby, an anniversary, and Mother's Day plus a move two days after it occurred - are we all sensing the lack of cash here?) I am ready and raring to get spinning again after doing none during my whole pregnancy due to fatigue, wrist issues, and generalized burnout after such heights of production last summer.

But I am re-energized, ready to break out new dye, paint my Blue Face Leicester and Wensleydale to heart's content and get some new skeins out there for sale. I am SO torn between these two wheels. Both are beautiful, functional, and exactly what I'd love in terms of portability but I must choose, and while I know I will own both within a few years, do I want to wait a year and get the Journey Wheel first, or unpack a beautiful Suzie Pro and get spinning whenever Callie will allow?

It is really a quandary and the only solution seems to be wheedling with the hubby to buy me the Suzie, but be allowed to get on the Journey Wheel waitlist so I can get one at the end of next year. It is a $100 deposit, which is doable, and I think with enough begging I can swing both.

Alas, if the Journey Wheel was available right now I'd buy it in a heartbeat, but great work takes time and I am willing to wait....

Just not wheel-less (the damn Traveller doesn't count! That this creaks.)

Well here it is, the beginning of my (more organized) fiber arts journey. The purpose of this site is to satisfy my fiber addiction, sell my yarn (because I make WAAAY too much to ever knit up by myself) and record my journey as I grow in artistry and experience. It is fun to look back at my first lumpy, badly-dyed yarn and marvel at how far my passion has taken me.

I love spinning, knitting, weaving... I adore fiber arts in all their varied and tactfully delicious forms, and I am so pleased to be able to share that joy with you. So sit down, stay awhile, browse the selection and take note.

This is my twisted (and plied) journey in wool. Enjoy!