Kiss My Knits!

My mom got Emily some DVDs from Model Me Kids that are designed for kids with autism to help reinforce social skills. She’s actually really enjoying them. It did lead to this humorous exchange, though.

DVD: “So try something new, maybe you’ll like it it.”
Steve: “Did you hear that, Emily? If you try something new, maybe you’ll like it.”
Emily: “Or maybe I won’t.”
Steve: “But did you see the DVD? Maybe you’ll like it.”
Emily: (sighs in a long-suffering way) “I *saw* the DVD. And maybe I *won’t*.”

Heh. Touche.

Ha! Get it? Spinning yarns? Because this post will be about storytelling AND spinning?

…fine, never mind.

We had a great time at the storytelling festival. The acts were great, including Emily’s grandparents and her fifth-grade cousin, who was storytelling for a crowd for the first time. He’s acted before, but this was his first monologue-type performance. This boy’s got crazy talent. Remember me when you’re rich and famous, kid!

They had a really nice kids’ area put together as well, for when the young’uns got restless from listening to stories. At left, Emily attempts stilts with a little help from her Dad. At right… I don’t know who’s at right. I thought I was taking a picture of my daughter, but I guess this super-hero stepped into the frame. Oh well.


Emily was super-excited to see her cousins, with hugs all around. They had a good time playing all weekend. If you look at them, you will see yet more proof that my daughter gets most of her genes from her Italian father. All she got from my side was some freckles and a propensity for hiccups. Thanks to her Italian genes, even though she spent a fair amount of time in the sun and I spent all my time in the shade, I was the only one to get sunburned. My nose is peeling, but Emily looks great. Go figure.



All this activity did leave my daughter pretty worn out. She had a good time, but it was also overwhelming, in the way that new activities often are to her. Here she is resting with her dad. Aw.

I spun up more of the red stuff I got from Yarns Etc. I think I want to try to make socks from this, so I’m not sure whether I should ply it (twist it with another strand to make it stronger). I’m open to suggestion from spinners, because I’m still quite inexperienced at this.

I haven’t been keeping good track of how much of the original batch I’ve already spun. I thought I’d bought six ounces, so I didn’t want to spin more than three until I could figure out whether to ply it or not. I don’t have a postal scale (I really should, for the business) so I didn’t have an accurate way to measure what was left unspun.

What I wound up doing was attaching the skeinwinder to the top of my wheel and being sure it was balanced. Then I hung the bag of unspun fiber from the left arm and a bag containing something I thought was approximately equal in weight from the right. In this way, I determined that I have between a small juice box and a vienna sausage can’s worth of unspun fiber left. In other words, about 4.5 ounces. That doesn’t seem right – did I buy eight ounces originally? So now I’m stuck as to what to do.

All my charity Jayne knitting is done. I may actually put out a call and see if anybody else wants one – I’m feeling very inspired by Joss Whedon’s recent Equality Now post on Whedonesque. The man’s a good writer, you gotta give him that.

Emily’s been super-engaged lately, which is fantastic but also means I really have to bring my A-game. So I’m off for now!

Hats up for: NJ, CA, CO.

My husband recently got a raise at work. We’re both very happy about this, talking about what bills we can pay off or down, and all that other practical stuff. However, I told him that while that was a great idea, he had worked hard, and I wanted him to buy something stupid and impractical with his very first higher paycheck.

Mission Accomplished!

We’d been talking about a wii for a while, but it definitely falls under the “stupid and impractical” category so we never got one. But he was really going on about it one morning, so I started calling around, and finally found one in stock, one place in Charlotte, way out in the sticks. So while he was at work that day, I took a long car drive and an hour later we were the proud owners of a wii. I also got an extra controller (bundled with more games) so that we could play together.

We’ve had fun with this! I personally have a sore keister from wii bowling, and my husband has a sore shoulder and arm from wii baseball. We both agree that this says sad things about the state of our fitness. However, from the looks of the flickr wii motion pool I have a feeling we’re not alone. One of my favorite pics is the one at left. No, that is not my husband.

I want to bring this over to my Dad’s house so he can check it out too. I think he’d get a kick out of it. He’s a good pool player, and this does have a 9-ball game. I had trouble figuring out the amount of force to put on the remote and also keeping it lined up with the sensor properly. As a result, when I played with my husband last night, I sometimes wound up leaving the ball juuuust shy of the pocket, setting him up for perfect shots. He skunked me. What a disgrace to the family name!

In case any of y’all out there have wiis and want to connect, my number is 5471 7965 3600 6004.

I’m still figuring this thing out, but so far, it’s fun!

We’re off to the Storytelling Festival of Carolina for the weekend. Y’all be good!

After hearing that Jenna Fischer, Pam on “The Office,” had fallen and fractured her back (she’s expected to make a full recovery) I decided to send her a card. community posted up her agent’s address for this purpose.

Note feathers pasted to card with glue stick. Am I #11 yet? No? What’s a gal gotta do?

As a side note, ladies, I don’t care how good you think they make your legs look, don’t wear high heels. Learn from Jenna.

http://www.wearwithstyle.com orders continue to pick up, bucking the general flat trend in summer. Must be the upcoming Serenity screenings.

In other news, I now have no jeans without holes in the knees – again – so I’m off to go clothes shopping. Tomorrow I go in for my semiannual haircut. Let’s hope the stylist does a good job since I’ll be seeing my in-laws this weekend.

I’m off to the mall! Woo!

I have Statcounter on www.wearwithstyle.com now, and I enjoy seeing the various places that people hit the site from. Please note, I do not use this tool in a creepy stalker way, more as a fun way to see where Browncoats are, and what I might need to fine-tune about the site should demand ever drop off. When I see someone from an unexpected country hit the site, I look to see what they were searching for when they found me.

Apparently, when you search for “nice lady” in Egypt, I’m the #2 hit.

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! WOO! How the hell did that happen?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!!

But wait! It’s not just our friends in the Middle East who have been misled. Apparently www.wearwithstyle.com is #12 for “nice lady” in the U.S. Which honestly shocks me more, because I would have expected porn or possibly Russian brides for that search.

I’m going to walk around all day today with my head held high, knowing that I have an international reputation as a nice lady.

HAHAHAHAHAAAAA*wheeze*HAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!!!

I don’t know why that frog prince from yesterday’s sandwich bag got stuck in my head, but it did. I made a couple more drawings of it. They might be good for embroidery, they might not. Jayne orders are picking back up so I need to be sure I’m staying ahead of the line again, so embroidery will have to wait.


I’ve been enjoying my carders, having fun blending some garishly bright fibers together to see the results. It’s also good practice to forego the diz and spin from the cloud of fibers the cards produce. The center mini-skein was plied onto a bigger bobbin than the ones I used to spin the singles. I didn’t notice until after it was done and it was a twisted mess. Oh well, live and learn. It was all for practice anyway. I’ll bring these tonight to Books-a-Million four our weekly knitting group.

Off to the grocery store – we’re out of milk, and Tvini want cereal!

Jayne hats up for: NC, CA, NJ.

First, re: Heroes, the person who considered George Takei as Hiro’s father should get the Nobel Prize for Casting. Because George Takei on Heroes really rocks. I mean, really, really rocks.

Note: out of deference to folks who haven’t seen the show yet, I am not including a pic of Takei from the actual series. Plus Sulu fencing shirtless on the Enterprise really rocks. I mean, really, really rocks.

And did you read this bit of news? “NBC “bulks up” with 30 combined episodes of “HEROES” and “HEROES: Origins,” an innovative new spin-off that each week will introduce a new character — one of whom will be chosen by viewers through the “HEROES” website on NBC.com to become a cast regular the following season….” I guess it’s only exciting if you’re a Heroes fan, but I am, so yay!

Moving on!

I had to stop spinning yesterday because I was cramping up in my left hand, but I still wanted to do a non-knitting craft, so I started on this embroidery idea that I’d had for a while. (The hoop is from the Sublime Stitching kit that got for me a few years ago. Thanks, !)

This shirt was originally designed for a friend who had a baby, but I’ve lost contact with him, so I’m not sure who will receive it now. If it goes well maybe I’ll sell it. Or maybe I’ll hold onto it for the next baby to come along – people are always having babies, it seems. The picture shows the design incomplete. I couldn’t watch Heroes and embroider at the same time, so I worked on a Jayne hat instead. Embroidery isn’t my strong suit – that’s my mother and grandmother’s area of expertise – but this is a fairly simple design. I’d like to do more embroidery, but there are very few things in my house which I think would be improved by more embellishment, or maybe I just have trouble envisioning them embroidered.

However!

Every day for my daughter’s lunch, she gets a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in a bag. I always draw a little picture on it and write a few words. It might be about a story we’ve been reading, or related to something they’ve been doing in school, or just a question she might like to talk about. I know the other kids look at these, so maybe it’ll give them a topic of conversation. I do these early in the morning, so they’re not exactly great art. But it occurred to me this morning that if modified, they might make nice embroidery patterns for kids’ stuff. I only wish I’d thought of this several years ago, as I do a different picture every day. Oh well.

We’ll see how this goes. Maybe it’ll be a one-shot deal, or maybe I’ll be inspired to do more.


Jayne hats up for: FL, NC, CA