Purl Side of the Moon

The Light Was Brighter

Well Christmas is rushing along.  We are getting ready for our weekend of running around from one side of the state to have Christmas Eve with family, to leaving at probably around midnight and driving up to the Eastern Shore so we can wake up and have Christmas with Mom and Dad.  Mom phoned me all excited that not only will we be waking up extra early for Christmas so that we can go to Church service, but also we can wake up even earlier and go down to feed the horses hot bran mash.

Now after probably arriving at sometime around 3AM...then waking up at  6AM, just to freeze my butt off to go to a barn and feed horses hot grain as opposed to it's normal at room temp grain...is not my idea how to start a very merry Christmas.  Warm covers, more sleep, prepared breakfast and hot coffee as I get my pajama-laden ass down the stairs...now that's a MERRY Christmas! 

Mom's a bit disappointed at my nonreciprocating excitement.  "But it's a Christmas tradition!," she said.  I don't think the horses are going to remember it from last year that we were there at any certain time to dump a bucket of hot bran in it; but if you think they will, maybe we can fool them and set their wristwatches back a few hours on Christmas Eve and we can make it there after church.

Well, for Christmas, I'll leave this Christmas amusement for you...We have a regular tradition of going around driving and gazing at houses decorated with lights and displays. I love doing this and feel like I'm a kid again when I do. As a grown-up I've kept this tradition and started doing it every year with friends, and making a fun night of it.  Well, there are quite a few very impressive and time consuming decorated houses, and ones we go back to every year.  One of these is one that I've visited since I was less than four years old and has a real train that rides kids around it.  But there is one house that's been around forever that just blows the pants of all the decorated house in all the world...

Dear readers, may I present to you...

THE WORLD'S TACKIEST (BUT OH SO MUCH FUN) HOUSE DECORATED FOR CHRISTMAS:

I can't even fit the whole house and yard in the picture. Wanna get closer:

Closer:

What you don't realize in this above picture...it is just a mere small section of all the giant inflatables and figures on his roof. Try this next one for a better perspective...see those two dark figures all the far, far left of the picture in front of the gate...THOSE ARE PEOPLE.

This one just gets bigger and bigger each year. If you live in the Alexandria area...this house on Fairview Lane is only a couple minutes down Rt. 1 from Old Town.  (On the street that is across for the Krispy Kreme, which is a landmark around here,take a left...You'll see the glow just as you start to go down it.) 

If you want to find other great decorated houses and events in this area, here is an excellent website with a map, archives and outragous pictures (More pics of the Fairview house are on here...see #13).  There's also info on the infamous waterskiing Santa and his friends that annually ski down the Potomac along the parkway on Christmas Eve day. Also here is a link of cool pictures of Old Town (where we live) during Christmas. And our special Christmas events.  I love walking around here during Christmas time and the Parade of Boats is always beautiful.

For more merriment, here's Stud:

The purple lights on the inside of the tree, made the picture a bit weird...but here he is in all his glory. Notice he has a ton of spikes still sticking out.

Finally, we were got a bit of extra special Christmas magic this year...We were leaving from seeing the decorated houses when we spotted this reindog caught in the headlights:

Marley, Piper, Jeff and I hope that all of you have a wonderful, safe and joyous Christmas!

Changing Size

So, I've started a new project:

This will become this:

This is the T-Shirt Sweater from the Ella Rae Book 1.  It is knit with Atacama.  I'm not sure how I feel about this yarn.  I like the feel of it, but the pattern tells you to knit it on needles a size larger (Size 8) than the recommended size for on the ball band.  The yarn doesn't really feel like a worsted weight as it is, either. I'm assuming it is done that way to give more stretch for the fabric to be more close fitting and t-shirt like.  Knitting with the larger needles causes the stitches to be less uniform and loose looking. I'm hoping with blocking and stretch, it will look better.

So, if I started a new project...does that mean I finished one?  Yep! Well sort of.  I finally finished the sleeve cap on the Must Have Cardi.  I still need to block all the pieces and then knit the button band on it.  Currently, my dining room table is covered in ribbon, gifts, food, wrapping paper, etc...So it might be a bit until I can get the blocking board situated up there.

So Stud turned out looking very handsome once adorned. He really doesn't look all that bad at all.  We've repositioned and trimmed him up a bit.  I took a picture, but it didn't turn out. We'll try again before Christmas.

I hope all of you are dealing with the holidays well. I'm still sweating it out for a few more packages to be delivered. May the postal Gods be with me!  I've already had some shipping nightmares and one deliveries I already know is not going to make it in time.

Everything Under the Sun is in Tune

OK...An update on what I know all of you are dying to hear...My karma and the tree's karma will be saved. We are keeping the misfit Christmas tree. I've decided to start calling him "Stud" to help boost his ego some.  I think after a bit of trimming and shaping, Stud might even not look all that bad. I still have some catching up to do.  Remember when I said I had wool samples that Liz gave me.  Here's a look at some of them:

And here are three of them that I've already spun up a bit of the samples from.

From left to right is Cheviot/Border Leister from a sheep named "Ivan", Coopworth from a sheep named "Hatch" and Targee from a sheep that I don't have the name of.   I'm kind of upset because when I was spinning the targee, I accidentally forgot to change back my ratio from plying and ended up over spinning it way too much.  Thank goodness I only did half of it, so I get to try again. So far my favorite has been "Ivan."  I've still got several more samples to try and one in particular that I'm dying to try.

Oh, and there's so much fun you can have playing with wool locks other than spinning; Check out Marley doing her impression of Don King:

Also, there were purchases from Liz's LYS, I got these two books:

I got some very traditional design books. After thumbing through "Knitting the Old Way" I had to get it. I think it will be excellent at helping me start designing some sweaters out of my handspun stuff.  And the EZ book is fantastic.  There's some very outdated designs in it, but the writing is nostalgic and amazing to see how she started designing. Furthermore, something in particular caught my fancy:

I can do it as a regular sweater or a cardi.  I believe I'll do it as a cardi.  So of course I had to pick out some beautiful Shetland yarn to do it in.

You can't tell in the pic, but the second skein from the right is a dark hunter green and the one on the left is a dark chocolate color.  I think this is a beautiful color combo and I can't wait to get started. But I've vowed to finish one of my two currently on the needle sweaters.  So it gave me a enough gumption to rip out the Must Have Cardi sleeve cap and start all over again.  Marley is very happy to have my lap (and wool sweater pieces) back while I knit.  She's quite upset that she can't be there when I'm spinning.

Or Was It the Hand of Fate

Tis the season...with a bang.  I have been so darned busy for the past few days. Working late and the Christmas season, just do not mix.  Sorry for lack of a "real" post here...and no pics.  I'm trying to crank this out from work because I'm feeling blogger guilt for not posting the past couple of days.

I've baked, finished Christmas shopping, started the cards and managed to bring home the ugliest Christmas tree in the world.  Charlie Brown has nothing on this tree.  It was sooooo COLD, and dark when we got to the place to buy a tree; We just basically took a quick look and said that will work.  It was so cold, the branches on all the trees remained smooshed and closed up, I don't know if we would really be able pick a good one anyway. While I'm bundled up, feet frozen and shivering in very unwarm work clothes, I figured karma would just hit and make this tree perfect when it opened up in the confines of our warm little house. Well karma was working a different way last night.  Maybe karma was more on the side of the tree this time.  Maybe it decided that this little tree that spent so much time growing up to be someones Christmas tree, shadowed by surrounding "perfect" trees, that it needed a good home and put it in the path of suckers that was just willing to forgo the whole inspection routine.  Maybe it's our karma to get such a tree, just for the fact that we relied too much on karma. 

Anyway, our little tree has some major bald spots and scoliosis of the trunk...Severe scoliosis.  I'm also ready to spit up some more money to get another one.  But I've taken such great pity on this little guy, I don't know if I can ditch him to the curb to not at least let him fulfill his long-lived destiny as a Christmas tree. If I was to do so...What would that do to our karma? I have a feeling it would do some serious damage to our future Christmas mojo.   I guess we'll bejewel the little ugly guy with ornaments and see if it helps .  Who knows maybe Charles Schultz was conversing with karma and felt that Purl Side's house needed to heed the advice of the wise Charlie Brown on what really is the meaning of Christmas.

A Great Day For "Fiber"

Wow...so much to tell. Saturday I had another wonderful visit with fellow blogger Liz!  Of course Max and Marley thought that us hooking up was all for them!  They had a great time running through the house and playing.  They really get along great.  Marley also thought the new kitties to meet were interesting too. I would say Max and Marley were becoming a pretty good tag team at chasing the cats.  Luckily the cats took pity on them and just out ran them instead of retaliating.

It is absolutely amazing how much Liz and I got done in one day.  We (and the animals) exchanged Christmas prezzies.  Marley got a HUGE box of beagle bagels and Piper got treats from Three Dog Bakery. Liz had a delicious lunch of pot roast and veggies waiting for us when we got there so after a hearty meal we headed out to her LYS.  I really loved this place. It had a lot of traditional yarns as well as a fantastic supply of many color of each yarn.  Not just the trendy colors, but the traditional colors as well.  I've found it very hard to find some these traditional yarns and colors in many yarn shops lately.  They also carried some some Shetland wool in an great selection of colors. I was very excited by this and yes...I took advantage of the selection.   Then I picked out some beautiful alpaca fiber that Ms. Liz managed to sneak and pay for as my Christmas present.  Yes, she's sneaky!  Here's a gander of all the alpaca that I plan to make some mittens from:

Then we headed back to Liz's house and flung ourselves into her stash...Both fiber and yarn!!!!  Let me tell you, Liz has a fricken fiber museum in her house!  She's got tons of fleeces and already prepared fiber. It's absolutely amazing. It was so amazing to see them all, feel them and all and best yet, Liz being her super-duper generous self gave me samples of all kinds of her favorites.  She has so much knowledge about all these sheep and their fleeces. I learned so much and eagerly took it all in.

Then Liz showed me how to dye with cake dye.  It was so cool and I can't wait to try this on my own. We died some wool with just a plain black cake dye and it turned navy, teal, maroon, green and many shades in between. AMAZING I tell you!!! Take a gander!

Right out of the pot:

After it's rinsing:

Isn't that so cool!!!  Then Liz showed me how to wash a fleece!  It wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be. Now after seeing the process and playing with some locks, I'm definitely interested in looking at purchasing some for myself.  Hubby, I hope your not reading; if you are, I promise it won't be nearly as much as Liz has!

We ate some yummy apple spice cake Liz made and butterscotch bread that I brought.  We accompanied it with some fantastic coffee! We finally got around to some spinning.  Liz gave me some lovely silvery Alpaca (yes even more!) to spin with. And she taught me how to ply...properly!

MMMMMM.....

It was getting pretty late (12 AM!) so we had to pack up and head home. I can't believe how much we got done in one day. And neither one of us shut up the whole time. It was great.  I've got so much more to tell, but I'll leave that for tomorrow.  Here's a parting shot of Marley with Liz and her husband Kirk (who looks just like Kevin Smith aka Silent Bob--And he's just as funny) before we were headed out...

And yes, that sweater on Marley is ONE of the sweaters that I have knitted her.  As you can tell, Marley loves Kirk as much as Liz.

And of course, Max was bidding us farewell too!

Thanks for such a wonderful (and educational) time Liz!  I can't wait until our next get together! And Rebekah, we are plotting on a way to get you here to the East Coast to join us for a fiber filled slumber party!

Remember the Lesson

Well we are buckling down (or bundling up) waiting for the snow to start.  Meanwhile, I'm waiting for my home-made Mac & Cheese to finish baking in the oven. I'm making it for our departmental Christmas get together.  Jeff is hoping for a blizzard so the Mac & Cheese stays here.  I'll admit...I am too.

So you want to hear about my latest knitting catastrophe...What's wrong with this picture?

Well if you cross your eyes...probably nothing; If you uncross your eyes or if you are sober, you realize that one sleeve is significantly longer than the other.  Let this be a lesson to you knitters with little memory, DON'T assume ANYTHING. If you don't have a point of reference such as a pattern, or the other sleeve with you...DON'T, under any circumstances, assume you remember what you did on the last sleeve and continue knitting.  Especially the last sleeve that you had to redo three times and then took a hiatus before starting the next one. Yeah, it might be tough sitting there with no knitting to do at that point in time, but it's a lot better than thinking you are finally off sleeve island to only to find out that the sand you were on was just washed out further to sea.

Yep, in the wisdom I gained from ripping and redoing the first sleeve cap three times, I had either corrected the length on my first sleeve by an inch from what I remember last.  That, or I'm having some serious gauge issues.  (Nah, clearly, the diamonds are even off.)  So a ripping we will go and hopefully sleeve two will only require one encore.

On a good note, Olives is spun up and I'm in love.  Certainly some of the colors have toned down a bit, but I think this is one of the most beautiful skeins of yarn (color-wise not spun wise!) I have ever seen.  Behold in all its glory: 

Have a great weekend...I'm sure to!  I have special plans and I'm hoping the snow doesn't ruin them.  Crossing fingers!!!!

Ummagumma*

Oh I've had a crazy weekend and start of the week...yep the House is back from recess and life has been nutty for me...but lets not talk about that...Let's talk about the most lovely and kind surprise I got last night.  After getting home late (IN THE SNOW!!!!), I hear someone at the door.  By the time I got to it, I saw some man walking away but there was a package left there.  I guess the UPS man was hindered by the white stuff and delivering late also.

Inside the box was this...

This roving is from Holly Spring Homespun in the Ocean's Reef colorway.  Now inside the package was a message that said: "It's pink yumma gumma!" Kathy at Holly Spring usually puts personal messages in her mailings, so I at first thought it was some weird saying of hers.  But I didn't order it and it wasn't adding up.  It was a fiber egnima.  A while later, I was settling down with some knitting and glanced at the message sitting on my coffee table and it clicked.  Pink...gumma...Pink...Ummagumma!!!!!!  Oh that wily Joanne at Keep Talking.  She's such a smartypants isn't she!  I tell you, it's great knowing a fellow knitter that is such Floyd Freak as I am...but it's even better to have one as a friend and so kind to boot!  THANK YOU JOANNE!  I will be thinking of you while I spin some Pink and I'll be sure to be listening to Floyd while I do it!

Of course, I had to knit up a small sample right away.  Here's a pic of how lovely just the small section is, can you imagine how beautiful it will be when all the colors are spun in.

Don't look too closely at the spin job.  I was experimenting a bit with spinning and plying.  But I really can't wait to hit this stash supply next.

I said "next" because this weekend, I started spinning up the Olives colorway.  I am so loving how this is turning out:

Oh and I've been knitting too...knitting straight into another sleeve cap disaster. I needed a break before I can bring myself to fix yet another major knitting hazard. I just want to kick my self.

It's colder than a witch's tit here in the DC area tonight.  I mean like super cold.  Like so cold it's a wool socks WITH wool slippers night.  Doubling layering those tootsies.  The kids think so too.  Here's Marley on the couch snoozing.

Hey, what were those flashes?

Oh, it was only Mom and that darned box that blinds me, I'm going back to sleep in my warm blankey

Piper isn't digging it either...She's seeking shelter from the chill but chooses to tough it out by making Marley look like the woos dog she is for having to bury under covers. Piper appreciates every opportunity she gets to remind Marley that the dog is the far more domesticated species in the house.

*Note:  I've always found great pleasure in saying the word Ummagumma.  It's a weird word, with a peculiar sound, and kind of cave-manish.  I used to say it quite a bit. What is it?...It's the name of an early Pink Floyd ablum.  And what does it mean?  It's a Cambridge slang term for "f_cking"!  Isn't it amazing the things you can learn on people's blog sites?