Thermalgal’s Temperate Mumblings

Progress Picture

For the first time in three weeks, I actually have a progress picture! But wait, I have not one but two pictures to show you. Last week was Noah’s ark, so I concentrated on the yellow and blue in the corners and working in the middle underneath the ark scene. I finished stitching the name and the bands above and below the name along with the gold boxes that will contain my initials and the year I finish it (which *will* be this year). First picture was taken on Saturday.

Looks great, huh? Well, it does except for when DH’s mom called and we wanted to verify the spelling of James’ middle name. Her response? “His middle name is Ryan not Michael.”

So on Sunday I frogged out the Michael and inserted a Ryan.

The niddy noddy is still MIA and at this point, I’m going to email the store because the time line they gave me for my backordered item has passed. How long does it take to make a stupid piece of wood and ship it to me? Granted they don’t actually make it in house, so they are probably waiting on a shipment from someone else. But gee, don’t tell me 2-4 weeks when you really mean more than that.

Still no Niddy Noddy

I ordered my niddy noddy with some other goodies back in December some time (between Christmas and New Years). The majority of the shipment arrived in about a week or so. But my niddy noddy was backordered. The invoice said that it would arrive within 2-4 weeks. This weekend will be 4 weeks. I want my niddy noddy! I have all three of my bobbins full (two have two ply and the third has singles from pencil roving). I really want to get them off the bobbins so I can spin some more. I could use the back of my kitchen chair, but for the past two weeks I’ve been thinking that I’ll just wait because my niddy noddy will be here any day now. If it isn’t here by Monday, I’ll send an email to the company asking for an updated estimated delivery.

In stitching news, I’ve put away Night Flight after only working on it maybe four hours last week. I didn’t stitch at all last night (I usually stitch for two hours on Monday and Wednesday nights) and who knows about Wednesday night. I think I’ll just put in much time as I feel like for the next couple of weeks (can you say stitching slump) and just continue to rotate even if that means only an hour or so per project each week.

Right now I want to spin and knit and I can’t do either! I want to start on either my sweater or Scott’s but I broke those needles. I want to spin, but my bobbins are full. I want to use my super bulky wool/alpaca blend for a hat for me, but I can’t find a pattern I like. I want to make a pair of fingerless mits for DH… this one I might actually be able to do. I hate the cheapo aluminum needles I got to replace my nice Brittany ones. The yarn for the baby afghan is squeaking! I was going to wait until Knit Happens opened up their new online store to use my gift certificate. But I don’t think I can wait anymore. I might just have to send Kristine an email now to get replacement needles.

And if you haven’t guess (or don’t visit The Wagon), I’m on the wagon big time in regards to spending. Until we close on the house on March 1st, I’m spending no money on anything except food, gas and bills. But I luckily have a couple of gift certificates under my belt from Christmas that will get me through this needle disaster.

Ba humbug…

I haven’t felt like posting much because I haven’t felt all that crafty. I had problems getting into the groove with Spring Valley last week and this week I just keep focusing on the fact that I won’t be able to finish the border on Night Flight like I was hoping.

DH’s truck broke down yesterday morning. I swear that thing breaks down once a year and picks the worst time. Just what we need right now, a repair bill while we are trying to frantically save for closing in March. So, that means he drops me off at work in the morning. Why is it that I’m the one most inconvienced when *his* truck breaks down? Last time, I had to borrow a friends Jeep while he took my car. This time, he takes my car and abandons me at work. I got here about an hour early this morning and I’ll probably be here an hour later than usual (which means an extra two hours). And the reason for this? It is hard to carpool when our works are an hour apart! I think it sounds more impressive when I say we work in different states. Okay and I should probably note that the reason he takes me car and drops me off is because he is doing all the driving (half an hour to my work and then an hour to his work) while I just sit there and try to sleep for the half hour I’m in the car.

I don’t usually do these, but for some reason I feel like it today. Here is the Friday forum that I found on Whiz’s blog.

1. When you write an e-mail, do you usually use correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc.? Or do you prefer to type a “stream of consciousness” message and not worry so much about the technical stuff? Do you spellcheck your e-mails?

I guess it depends on if the email is for work or is personal. For work emails I try to use proper grammar and be PC and all. But for personal emails I just do stream of consciousness. I only check spelling if I’m unsure about a word. I used to use the spell checker more often but over the years my spelling has actually improved so I don’t rely on it as much.

2. Do you typically use emoticons/smileys and words like “LOL” or “TTYL” in your e-mail messages? What fonts/colors do you normally use, or do you use e-mail stationery? Do you use an e-mail signature?

I’ll use the occasional smiley in an email if I’m joking about something and want to make sure the receiptant knows. I just use the default fonts/colors (black) and no stationery or signatures.

3. How many e-mail accounts do you have, and how often do you check them? About how many messages do you receive per day, and are you good about keeping up with e-mail correspondence? Would you call yourself an “e-mail junkie”?

I have two accounts one personal and one work. At work I get maybe twenty emails not counting spam and at home probably about 5, not including spam. My work email is checked only while at work. My personal email is checked first thing in the morning after I get up, through out the day at work, and then once or twice again after I get home. I don’t get many emails (most are from my DH during the day), so I guess I’m good about keeping up. I’m an email junkie in the sense that my family doesn’t use the phone we use email.

4. Do you subscribe to any e-mail lists, groups, message boards, forums, etc.? Why did you decide to join them? Have you made lots of close friends through these groups? Do you post regularly?

I subscribe to some Yahoo groups but I have most of them set to no email (I think only one is set to email) and I just check them online. I have probably 4 boards I lurk at on a daily basis with three I hit once or twice a week. I post regularly on two of them. But regularly for me is one or two posts a day. I have some friends I’ve made through the groups, but not lots.

5) Who is the most recent person you’ve e-mailed? What was the topic of your message? What is the most recent e-mail that you’ve received? What e-mail program do you use?

I’ve only sent one email so far today and that was to a friend checking to see if she still wanted to go to my sister’s tomorrow for a PartyLite party. Most recent email I’ve received I got from my DH telling me that he made it to work in good time and that there wasn’t a lot of traffic. We use Lotus Notes at work and I use the web interface for my ISP most of the time for my personal email.

What is wrong with this picture?

If you answered that the knitting needle on the right doesn’t look right, you would be correct. And the reason is that my 4mm Brittany knitting needle broke when I took my bag out of the car Friday night. And why is that important. As you can tell from the photo, I need those needles for the baby afghan. And I need them for my next sweater… and for DH’s sweater!

So, I ran to Michael’s yesterday and got some cheap aluminum needles to tide me over until I can get some good ones from a LYS. So, there I was at Michael’s with a gift card and a 40% off coupon. And what did I leave with? My needles of course and a learn to draw Lilo & Stitch book! Check out my first attempt. It might look like it was done by a 6 year old, but I’m extremely proud of it! My second attempt didn’t come as nice (it is Stitch with all his arms out in his space outfit).

I’ve been kind of feeling blah all week. I’ve chalked it up to not wanting to work on the confetti of Spring Valley. So, I spun some and knitted some over the weekend. I was going to start my sweater this weekend until I realized that it took the same needles as the baby afghan. So, I’ll just have to power through the baby afghan so I can get to my sweater that much faster.

I did try spinning some pencil roving, but it kept breaking. I got really frustrating and I wanted to chuck the entire contraption out the window. But yesterday I restarted and put the bobbin on the higher speed and I now have a bobbin full. Of course all three of my bobbins are now full and I really can’t do anything until my niddy noddy gets here, which should be any day now!

I finished up the yellow square Sunday (as you saw in the picture) and I’m probably halfway finished my fourth square. I was only planning on three a month to make my deadline. But if I do five a month I can get my part done in three months instead.

Jenni Babbles…

I don’t have any scans to show you, but I have lots of thoughts bumbling around in my head, so I’ll just jot them down.

My friend Sue bought us (as in the four who meet on Thursdays at her place) each a Tamagotchi Connection. We’ve recently been playing with genetic experiments to see how to get the different characters (I was tired of the kissing ducks and chickens with toupees). Sue’s goal was a Hanatchi (snake)and mine was a Gozarutchi (ninja). Of course as fate would have it Sue got the Gozarutchi last month and today… I got the Hanatchi. But that is okay because second on my list is the Robotchi which is the result of the same experiment for even generations that the Hantachi is for odd generations. So, enough about that topic, moving on…

Over the weekend I played with my new wheel (when oh when will my niddy noddy get here so I can play some more!). I got confused and tried out Andean plying when I meant to try Navajo plying. Oops. Oh well, good skill to have. I want to try Navajo plying to preserve the color of varigated roving. I don’t think I was given an estimate on how long my niddy noddy will be back ordered. But I think it has been almost two weeks since the rest of the order arrived. But I want to play some more so I can get really good and try out some of the nifty rovings I see on line. Check out the angora/merino/silk blend at The Woolen Rabbit. And moving on to the next topic…

Hand knit sweaters. I think at this point in my life, I’ve only worn one. And that would be the one I finished in December. And while I’m extremely happy with how my first sweater turned out, I’m going to redo some parts of it. I’m unhappy with the way the arms join the shoulder, but most importantly the sleeves are around 3 inches too long. I could just bunch them up a bit but then that just accentuates the poor seaming. So, the solution is to take the arms off and rip them back to before the shoulder cap to get rid of the extra length. Not sure when I’ll do that. It might be a summer project and I’ll just continue to wear it this season. But I have determined that hand knit sweaters are cool and I want more! And that slides us into the next topic…

I’m working right now on the secret project for my sister. I’m about a third of the way finished the third part(of 15). And I have to say that it is my least favorite part to date. What I would love to do is get this quickly finished up and of course put arms and a head on Bobbi Bear. Then I’ll have no projects on the go and I can start either my Liv sweater or the Zip neck pullover for DH. And moving from knitting rotations to cross stitch…

On the Rotation board the question of the week is about our fantasy rotation. I said that mine would be have a rotation that only lasted a month. And since I really like the weekly rotation that means only 4 slots. I currently have 6 slots and two of my projects are big (Spring Valley and Rainforest Afghan). So, one of my goals this year is to get my rotation down to 5 slots. I already have plans for the slot Scent of Old Roses and Night Flight occupy. So, that means when I’m finished Noah’s Ark, the sixth slot will disappear.

Okay, I think that might be enough of my babbling. I have about fifteen minutes before I change and head out for the first yoga class of the winter session (I haven’t had yoga class since the middle of Dec!).