I’ve been working a lot of nights.  When I work nights, I’m not motivated to do anything.  I do what I have to do, like drink coffee and eat and stuff.  I only knit at work on my breaks (wink) and I only spun a couple of hours in the last month.  I don’t really know what I do with the time I’m not working.  Honestly!

Here are some of the things I’ve been up to.

Pucker: (It totally looks better on me!)

Wakefield Scarf:

Jamie Day’s socks:

Misc. spun wool: (I got this wool when I bought my wheel – not sure what the fiber is.)

Scott got his new birthday golf clubs:

I don’t understand the appeal but, I keep telling myself that it’s like someone giving me lots of wool.

I watched football:

I’m going back for 5 nights starting tonight.  I’m a little bummed out.   All these night shifts are hard on the moral.  Jacob has to go spend the weekend in town with the family.

He starts school on Monday.  I can’t believe my baby’s going into grade 11 already.  I’m starting to panic a little.

Oh, and further to my last post, my sister, mother, Scott’s mother, France’s mother -in-law and her friend went to see Eat Pray Love.  It was good.  But, movies are never as good as the book!  I love Julia Roberts though.  I just had to see it.

After I finished that book and saw the movie, I started The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks.  They turned that one into a movie too.  He has, as far as I know, 5 books into movies.  I finished the book last night and cried like a baby for the last 5 chapters!!!

I’m thinking of reading Stephen King’s Carrie next.

Must. Cut. Grass.

Well, like everyone else it seems, I’ve been busy.  Working.  I have nothing exciting to report.  I haven’t gone on any adventures since the last time I posted.

I did wrap up a few projects:

I also finished my Pucker but have not yet photographed it.

I had a fire last night.  It was small.  But the people across the street were having a Ho-Down – which provided the music for the evening.

If you’re fighting the urge to laugh at Scott’s black socks, it’s ok, I laughed at him too.

I started my Wakefield Scarf finally.  It’s very yummy.  But the pattern called for 50 stitches and I thought it was just too wide.

I cut it to 32 (multiple of 6 + 8).

I also made a new friend.  Aren’t his colors pretty?

Oh, I broke my mower again – bent the blade good this time!  There goes another $100 (from the yarn budget).

Going to see Eat, Pray, Love tonight with a bunch of girls (my mom, my sister, my sister’s mother-in-law, Scott’s mother).  I can’t wait!!!!

No spinning the last couple of weeks.  It’s too hard to stop when you start… so I haven’t started.

Working a bunch of nights again this week – even a little OT.  Will all be worth it when I get paid.  I have to start saving for the Kitchener/Waterloo Knitter’s Fair the weekend of September 11th.

Going to visit John and Patrick today.

A few weeks back, I decided to order myself a new flyer and bobbin for my wheel.  I was so excited.  BUT, remember from my last post that I thought this was a woolly winder right?  Well, anyway, this new stuff arrives maybe three weeks ago and I’m ecstatic about this new toy of mine.  Then I discover this!

Ok.  Fine.  I’ll figure this out.  I try to pop out that little black thingy in there.  No go.  I e-mail the store I purchased this from and she says “No problem.  We’ll order you a part for it asap.”  I’m feeling a little bit better now.

My mother has an appointment in Ottawa on a Monday a few weeks ago.  The office where she goes is only a few blocks from the yarn store I got the equipment from.  So, I ask her to pick up this new little piece for me… oh, and a new set of circular needles for me.

Mom goes to the store.  They’re closed on Mondays.

On Tuesday, I call the store and ask them to mail me this little piece + a new set of circs I plan to use to make two socks at one time.  No problem.  She’ll take care of that right away.

I wait.  And wait.  And wait.  How long does it take to get mail from Ottawa to Cornwall?  I figure maybe a week right.? Not so much.

Finally, yesterday, which seems like and eternity later, my package arrives.  YOUPI!  I get it all set up and I’m all excited.  I take the flyer and the bobbin out of the box and what do I find right there in the bottom of the box in a little bag (which I totally looked at when I opened the box the first time)???

I am such a PUTZ!!!!

Oh well.  All is well.  I think I have to replace the drive band on my wheel ’cause the flyer and bobbins are really huge.  I’ll have to make a shorter one.  Maybe the girls can help me with that today at spinning.

I also got to play with my carder this week!  I took it outside, cleaned it, oiled it and then mixed a couple of colors together.  It’s not a fancy carder and it will never do fine fibers with the drum that’s on it now.  But, I’m happy anyway because it works and it’s another toy for me to play with.

It was fun.

On another note, I’m totally neglecting my knitting!!!  I have three projects on the go.  Genny’s socks are almost finished.  I haven’t worked on my Pucker in a week.  I also started some baby socks out of the Knit Picks I had left over from my TreeFrog socks from a few weeks ago.

I finished Stephen King – On Writing yesterday.  Very interesting.  I went for a walk to the library a couple of days ago on my lunch break and got three used books by Stephen King at the “Friends of the Library” for $6 total.  What a deal.

Last night, I started Eat, Pray, Love.  I saw the commercial for the movie and knew instantly that this was going to be one of my faves.  THEN, I heard it was based on a book.  Apparently, I live in a cave because it’s been out for years.  Either way, I’m going to read it before the movie comes out.

Sometimes I wonder if it’s a good idea to read a book before you see the movie.  Does it set you up for disappointment?  The movie is NEVER as good as the book… with the exception of The Green Mile and The Kite Runner.

Oh well, time to go spinning now.

Seriously though, I don’t know where the time goes.  It’s July 24th today and I feel like July 1st was just last week?  Did someone hit the fast-forward button when I wasn’t looking?

I’ve worked a lot in the last couple of weeks.  BUT, I’ve managed to do a few things that I’m pretty excited about:

I went zip-lining with Jacob and my father (63).  We had such a blast.

This was a giant deal for me because I don’t like heights.  Youpi for me!

I managed to figure out that the piece I bought for my wheel, which I thought was a “woolee winder“, is actually just a travelling flyer and bobbin.  Those two things are apparently very different.  I don’t think I wasted money.  I’m sure this new flyer will work much better than the ones I have – plus it actually has different ratios.  (I think I just  sort of figured those out: big is faster, small is slower.  I could be wrong though.)  PLUS, the bobbins I got are enormous.  I find that I run out of room on my little bobbins quite often.

I spun some Coopworth.  I think it turned out awesome.  I put a lot of spin in the single so that I could get a tighter ply.

How cool is that??  I made that!!

I went to my (awesome) friend Bonnie’s last week to use her English Combs (which I’m going to save my birthday money for).  I also used her drum carder (an electric one – mine is hand-cranked and I haven’t tried it yet).  I made some combed roving and some carded bats.

These are the combs:

They are so threatening that they won’t let you see the actual teeth in the picture.

This is Bonnie’s carder:

This is my carder:

Anyway, the combed roving turned out way better… I find.

This is the carted bat and the spun result:

I know it’s hard to tell the difference but, I can tell.  The carded bat has more neps.  I don’t know that the combed stuff had any neps in it.  I probably wasted more wool with the combs but the result is more pleasant.

I also managed to do this while I was trying to ply:

TIP:  Don’t try to make a center pull ball with a rolled up piece of paper.  It eventually starts to collapse so that the outside stuff scrunches up the inside stuff and you get the above mess.

On a knittier-note, I’ve been working on socks for a friend’s wife.  I’ve been commissioned.  Genny has giant feet so I was somewhat worried about running out of wool.  I weighed the first sock and the rest of the wool and, according to my calculations, I will have plenty.

And, all the while trying to work on my Pucker.   I had it done to 13 inches, almost ready to start that funky chest thing when I decided I didn’t like the way it was turning out.  So, I ripped it back and now I have this:

I have some grass to go cut.

Until next time.

That is about 3 inches.  Yikes.  Considering the fact that it’s the end of July, will I be finished in time to wear it this summer?