Post-itis

OH HI THERE!

I'm still alive, promise! And I am going to try to blog more because I really miss it!

Our dyeing for the Sock Summit is moving along slowly but surely. I found some spin issues with one of the yarns and have had to send it back, so that's totally got me freaked out, but more is coming and the dyeing will go on. Fingers crossed.


I'm also doing a bit of sewing too. I've almost forgotten how much I enjoy a productive sewing day. I'm working on some notions pouches and some cute little box bags for the Summit, and I hope to have some in the Etsy store eventually too.

Just the beginning of the notion bag pile which includes a ton of Amy Butler and some Kaffe Fassett:


A sample box bag:



I might accidentally have acquired a quilting bug this month. It is not unlike the swine flu. Except when it is. It caused me to trip and fall and buy jelly rolls of gorgeous fabric to make throw quilts for my couch. DARN. But they'll keep me warm, I keep saying to myself, and they'll be prettier than the ratty old blankets I've been using! Yeah, that's it.

Our garden has really taken off too! We have some gorgeous plants that are growing very well and, um, rather quickly. We already harvested our lettuce and chard and it was DELICIOUS.

This is our first squash flower. I took this last week and now we have about 12 more flowers. We might be overrun with squash pretty soon. Just a guess.

My friend, Caryn, gave us four more roma tomato plants. There was no room in the SFG so we planted them in their own pots. The one last one has a second squash plant in it as well.

Again, this picture was taken last week and I swear that squash plant has doubled in size since then. It's totally crowding out the tomato plant in the top left and overshadowing what's left of the chard on the right. The tiny green spots are all pepper plants and an eggplant. All growing a bit slowly, but it might be that the squash is sucking the life out of everything else.

Oh, and see the ant hill at the bottom? Right up there ^? They will not go away. I spray organic stuff and they just move over a bit. Fuckers.

In addition to growing our own food in these lean times, I've become a coupon whore. Publix has buy one get one free items every week, so I save up my coupons for stuff I need, then I go and raid their BOGO stuff. As evidenced below:

I spent $19.68 (stuff I didn't have coupons for, sadly) and saved $42.50. It's like winning the lottery!

Leave me a comment if you're interested in learning more!

Hope you're all having a great short week!

WINNERS!!

I want to thank you all SO VERY MUCH for donating to my Sock Summit raffle! Thanks to you guys and some generous friends, Lotus Yarns will be in Portland for the Sock Summit in August!!!

I'm extremely excited though admittedly a little nervous. This will be my first show EVER and I'm traveling a long way to do it, but I think it will be tons of fun! At the very least I hope to meet some of you and make lots of new friends!

So, on to the winners shall we?

I set up a spreadsheet with all the donators listed the appropriate number of times for their donation, then I cut them all up and put them in a big old dye pot and had Nate act as my lovely assistant and draw names!


Oh hi. I printed really tiny and it's a really big dye pot. Har.


Ok, winners! Pretend there's a drumroll....


Prize #1 - One pair of socks, handknit by me for you! Janette Smith!!


Prize #2 - One skein of the Lotus Yarns Hydroponic colorway handdyed by me! Claire Eymin!!


Prize #3 - 10 skeins of Noro Kureyon in color 185, generously donated by allnoro.com! Kendyl Young!!



Prize #4 - One handsewn box bag in Amy Butler fabrics from the lovely Carrie! Courtney Denney!!



Prize #5 - 10 balls of Elspeth Lavold Calm Wool (003-ashes colorway), donated by Main Street Yarns! Lauren Botelle!!



Prize #6 - One skein of Wollmeise in the Wilder Mohn colorway donated by the fabulous Erica! Heidi!! (whom I do not have a last name for, sorry! but you were the only Heidi, so there's no confusion!)



Prize #7 - 8oz. tub of whipped Shea Butter donated by Kim! Kristen Rengren!!



Prize #8 - Blue Moon Fibers' SilkySocks in Lunasea, donated by Renee! Mary Rogovin!!



Prize #9 - Blue Moon Fibers Socks That Rock in Flower Power, also donated by Renee! Belinda Toby!!





Please email me with your shipping addresses, and Janette I'll need to get with you on a pattern and yarn!

Thanks again, everyone, for participating and helping me move to the next level. I really appreciate all of your love, support and encouragement!

More updates on the Sock Summit progress as I nail down decisions. I'm trying to keep it as frugal as possible and I'll also have cute little things that are NOT yarn at the booth. They are so cute but I'll blog about those later!

For now, I'm just so happy to be going that I squee at least once a day!!

xoxo

Blog Raffle!

***This raffle will run through the end of April and I'll be drawing winners on MAY 1!!!***

Hi there. I'm interrupting this irregularly updated blog to bring you a contest for lots of yummy prizes!

Yarn type prizes. For yarn type folks. LIKE YOU. Yeah, you. Hi there. Did I tell you how hot you look today? Mhmmmmm.


So here's the situation. I've been invited to be a vendor at the Sock Summit in Portland, Oregon, in August. YAY! I'm super excited! This will be an incredible opportunity to get my name and company out there to more knitters and really make my dyeing business dreams come true! Dudes, this is SO BIG for me. I can't even put it into words what it means to be invited.



But I need your help. Things are very tight and getting there is going to be unbelievably hard on us financially. As in, I *can't* do it without help. I also work for a (broke as hell) state university that is threatening furloughs, which could make this impossible.

This is where the prizes come in!

Every $5 donation gets your name put into a big pot. At the end of the contest, I'll pull out names for the following prizes:

Prize #1 - One pair of socks, handknit by me for you!

Prize #2 - One skein of the Lotus Yarns Hydroponic colorway handdyed by me!



Prize #3 - 10 skeins of Noro Kureyon in color 185, generously donated by allnoro.com!


Prize #4 - One handsewn box bag in Amy Butler fabrics from the lovely Carrie!



Prize #5 - 10 balls of Elspeth Lavold Calm Wool (003-ashes colorway), donated by Main Street Yarns!

Prize #6 - One skein of Wollmeise in the Wilder Mohn colorway donated by the fabulous Erica! (p.s. I want to keep this REAL BAD.)


Prize #7 - 8oz. tub of whipped Shea Butter donated by Kim (who is starting her own biz venture as I type)!

Prize #8 - Blue Moon Fibers' SilkySocks in Lunasea, donated by Renee!


Prize #9 - Blue Moon Fibers Socks That Rock in Flower Power, also donated by Renee!

I'm working on a few more prizes, so keep checking back! If you'd like to raffle for something specific, please note it in the comments!

Thank you so very much for your donation. Your support means the world to me!

All donations over what I need will be divided equally and sent to my local homeless shelter and rape crisis center.

what i did on my spring break...

Ok, so it's only the first official day of spring break, but I do still have to work so I got busy doing the things on the list in my head.

I've always wanted a garden, and now that time are a little tougher (or a lot!) for everyone, I decided to go for it. I want to be able to grow my own vegetables and have them available whenever I want right out of my own yard instead of from China (or wherever else they might be imported).

Unfortunately our yard is nothing but Georgia red clay. Grass doesn't even grow here willingly. And our 'yard' is not very big and mostly a hill. Not much room for a garden.

So I bought a book called Square Foot Gardening, read it last night, and then went to my local nursery and Lowes to get what we needed. We ended up having to call a friend to help us with the plywood because it wouldn't fit in our car! Thanks Jacob!

Nate and I picked some plants we know we'll use including 4 different kinds of HOT peppers (all Nate), carrots, squash, lettuce, parsnips, beets, eggplant, kale, swiss chard, onions, tomatoes, basil and marigolds (so pretty!).


Nate is a better box builder and general drill operator than me, so he took over building the box. It was super easy and we had it together in just a few minutes.

p.s. This is the flattest spot in our yard. Directly above is a hill and directly below is a slope that goes down another 20-30 feet to a creek. But we do have loads of trees, so it kind of makes up for it.

Then he attached the plywood bottom.


And we have a garden box! It's sitting on weed paper if you're curious. (not that kind of weed.)


And now for the fun part - mixing together the dirt! We started with blending the compost. At the very bottom is cow poo, then on the left side is mushroom compost and the darkest stuff is worm poo. Mmmm.


Then we added peat moss and vermiculite and stirred it all up.

Yay! Real dirt!

We filled up the box with dirt and added the lattice grids. The idea is that you plant each square foot with something different and the grid helps you divide up the box into equal squares. It's also super cute!

Finally, we have some seeds in the dirt and cute little markers so I know what the hell I'm looking at when I go out there. I was able to plant seven squares today and the rest have to be grown inside for a while.


In a few weeks I should have some super yummy vegetables! So. Excited.

Next up...painting my bathrooms! (not quite as exciting.)

A Few of My Favorite Things

We are busy little bees over at Chez Lotus! I've gotten really slack about updating though because it's easier to just Twitter stuff quickly or bitch and moan on Ravelry. I know, I suck. :P

One of the things I'm working on is a website for Lotus Yarns (which I might have to rename because of some Chinese company, but maybe not...GRRR. we'll see). Learning Photoshop is fun and time consuming so I hope the final product will be made of awesome! So far I have a basic main page, but I'll be adding purchasing software (a store) and a gallery of colorways and finished products. Woot! None of this is online yet. Boo.

Speaking of shops, we've been working on a pretty serious shop local initiative, at least at our house. Athens itself has had a cute little "Shop Your ATH Off" slogan around town (pic here, thanks Bill!) and so we've joined in.

Shop local...why? For me it's about keeping money in my town if I can. That includes relatively big boxed stores (since they employ people who live here) AND locally owned shops. For Valentine's Day, Nate bought me some gorgeous opal earrings and a matching necklace from a super cute little downtown store. I bought him some books on baking bread from Borders and together we got a few baking supplies from another local store.

My sweetie made us whole wheat bagels, which is very time consuming and almost not worth the effort, but man are they tasty.


Another crazy thing I'm trying: Green smoothies. Call me nuts. They taste pretty good to me. The only downside is that the ladies on Ravelry are making me want blenders I can not afford. Le sigh.

And believe it or not, I AM KNITTING. I'm almost finished with this pair of socks in Shibui Sock Pebble (or Sand? I can't remember). The colorway is pretty but I really hate the pooling. Doesn't matter though, I'll be wearing them anyway since I've finally made toes that AREN'T square OR pointy. It's a knitting miracle.


I'm also working on two sweaters and a cowl, but I forgot to photograph them this week. Oops!

And before I forget - YARNY GIVEAWAY! Carrieoke is collecting donations for Athens Literacy Council and she's holding a drawing for handknit socks, a handknit cowl, and Lotus Yarns superwash fingering yarn in a CUSTOM COLORWAY made just for YOU! Sweet, eh?

Aside from Photoshopping and knitting, this is a new favorite thing. Add water, lemonade, or actual sweet tea and whoa. Not for the faint of heart. This will knock you on your ass if you're a lightweight like me. Whoops.


Another favorite thing? YARN. I culled my stash this week in preparation to anonymously give to the LSG RAK thing on Ravelry. I realized there were many things I loved and some of them will never see the light of day if I don't give them a better home. There's some Yarn Pirate, some Noro Kureyon Sock, several lace weight yarns, and a few things I've dyed myself. I'll miss you dear yarns, but now I have room for more. Ahem.


Finally, not a favorite thing:

Viral rashes. OMG with the itchies. More pictures here on flickr, this one in particular is very tame. I was sick with a pretty bad cold a few weeks ago and this is the aftermath. I've never had a rash like this before, so I freaked out a little and ran screaming and begging to my doctor to make it stop only to have him say, "I have no idea what this is". Thanks dude. He referred me to a dermatologist and I got a shot and two weeks worth of drugs. The swelling and itchiness is gone but the red spots remain for now. It's amazing how insane just itching can make a person. Whoa. I'm lucky I didn't hurt anyone.

Yarn Sale and Mythos Yarn Club!

I have some yarn that needs a good home so I’ll be posting it on the Etsy store on SUNDAY. There are some ‘oops’ yarns, semisolids that never made it to the store, and stuff that didn’t sell for whatever reason. There are Louet semisolids that are still in BIG 1/2 lb. hanks that would be perfect for shawls. It’s also the very last of the Louet!

And now for the MYTHOS YARN CLUB!

This will be a 6 month yarn club starting in March and featuring some gorgeous high end yarns including a wool/silk blend, an alpaca/wool/silk blend, merino/bamboo, cashmere/merino/nylon, merino/seacell, and the merino/nylon/silk/silver blend (Aura)!! There will be fingering, sport, DK, and Worsted weights!

The theme is Mythological Women and while I haven’t chosen my muses yet (har), the semisolid and multi-tonal colorways will be an homage to goddesses, graces, fates, nymphs, and mortals. I’m So. Excited.

I’ll post paypal buttons on the blog on Sunday. You can pay for the entire 6 months at once or do a monthly subscription. The cost will be $35/month which includes your priority shipping and the club will run March - August.

Since this club will run longer than my others have, I’m only going to take about 20 subscriptions, so please set yours up as soon as you can!

Back from D.C.!

On our way home from D.C., I had the realization that I really needed to write about our trip in as much detail as I can remember, lest I forget.

It was wonderful and inspiring, and though I would probably never do it again (at least not on a frigid January morning) it was an amazing day I’ll hold dear forever.

We spent several days in D.C. before Inauguration enjoying the growing stream of people, the media frenzy, a jaw-dropping number of police and armed escort caravans, along with the stunningly gorgeous museum offerings, archives, and architecture. It had been decades since either of us had been to our nation’s capitol, so we tried to take in as much as possible. We paid for it physically. We walked anywhere from 5-10 miles a day in the 20-30 degree weather and felt like very old people by dark. I’ve never been so thankful for ibuprofen in all my life. Every part of me was sore every single day.

Among the sites we walked past were the White House, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Capitol Hill, Library of Congress, Supreme Court, National Archives, Smithsonian Museums, Native American Museums, WWII Memorial, Vietnam Wall, Korean Memorial, and various other state buildings around the Mall. We spent time in the Natural History Museum, Native American Museum, National Archive, Air and Space Museum and at all the monuments on the Mall.

On the day of Inauguration, we awoke at 6 a.m. to chants of “Obama! Obama!” outside our hotel window. We booked a room at Hotel Harrington, one block off Pennsylvania (the parade route), two blocks from the White House and four blocks from the Mall. Outside our window was a security checkpoint and a lot of people were waiting there to enter the parade area. We got up at about 6:30 and turned on the television to realize that we were already running late and the Mall was filling up. We quickly showered, dressed and made our way into the crowded streets to grab a bagel and coffee and start walking. Wow it was cold. But everyone on the streets was in great spirits. Despite the lines and incredible crowds there was singing, chanting, laughing and loads of smiles.

We had watched the military, police and secret service erect barricades and block off streets the day before so we were prepared for a long walk to the Mall but it still took almost two hours to walk up and around the White House. We finally got as far as the Washington Monument at about 9 a.m. after a few miles of rerouting around the parade route and were forced to turn back as the streets had been closed and we couldn’t get any closer. After trying a few alternate options we resigned ourselves to settle in with a group of people who were sitting near a jumbo-tron between the Monument and the White House. This was the only frustrating part for me – I had intended to be much closer to the Capitol building, but it wasn’t to be. Once we introduced ourselves to the ladies behind us from Chicago and realized that they actually had tickets and could not get in, I realized that I could be a lot more frustrated and decided that if they could have a great attitude about our location, I could as well. Besides, we were ON THE MALL! It ultimately didn’t matter where or with whom - we were there, experiencing the entire event in the flesh with millions of other people who were so happy to be there with us.

It was easily the coldest day of my entire life, but once the Obama family arrived at the Capitol it didn’t matter anymore. Sore feet and legs, frozen toes, fingers and ears all ceased to exist as the moment arrived. As soon as he accepted the oath, everyone as far as we could see cheered, waved flags, jumped up and down, danced, cried, and hugged total strangers. The speech was wonderful and all around us people cheered and sang. When it was over, we both hugged the wonderful ladies behind us who had been so sweet and shared their stories with us. One of them had gone to school with Michelle back in Chicago, so this day meant a great deal to her. We wished them well and headed back to the warmth of our hotel, which took yet another two hours. Such big groups of people slammed shoulder to shoulder might normally cause a stampede, but people were wonderful about helping each other, even as much as calling out when a step was coming up (since no one could see anything) and helping others over barricades and down embankments. I feel lucky to have been amongst such good will and joy and it made me feel proud to be an American again.

As we heard later, there were absolutely no injuries or arrests associated with that day’s events. If only we can all carry this loving, helpful spirit forward with us for the next four years…

In all, we spent about 7 hours in the cold with 4 or so of those hours on the move. Afterwards we watched the parade on tv as we warmed up and took naps. It was worth every moment.

Happy 2009!

Wow, what a month! I can't believe how insane it's been and how fast it's gone by.

The semester ended and I got all As, which is a surprise even to me. Work got nuts with all the end of the year stuff and xmas came and went (peacefully, mostly). I've been sick the last few days and my sweet puppy dog had his eye scratched on xmas day so we've been laying low the last few days.



This was the day after, right before we went to the vet. He's getting drops 3x a day and drugs 2x a day so he's looking a LOT better and the prognosis is very good. We're doing a lot of sleeping this week!

Regardless of the end, in all I think it's been a pretty good year!! The yarn business was great fun and I survived grad school (so far). I accomplished a pretty good number of things on my 101 List, but I doubt I'll get them all done. Several require a decent chunk of money and thanks to ye olde economy I don't have much to spare.

Nevermind though, let's get to the knitting. I've also been using the break to finish some knitting projects and here are the ones I got pics of.

Noro Striped Scarf:

Marian Cowl:
Both were pretty quick and easy and already get lots of wear.

I hope you all have a great start to the New Year! Thanks for being yourselves. Big hugs and kisses to you all! I'll be toasting to you from the warmth of my couch/sickbed/best-place-for-kitty-snuggles-ever!!!

(p.s. I've run across some yarn that never made it to the etsy store for some reason, so look out for a blow out sale coming soon!)

Knitta, can you spare some yarn? (charity knitting and contest in one!)

Thanks for all the commiserating and well wishes, y'all! I'm doing good and my knitting carries on. Nate FINALLY asked for something too! An Obama hat for inauguration (hello, deadline), so I'll be casting on that project pretty soon.

But first, a good blogger friend needs some help. Anna is starting a wonderful charity knitting initiative and in knitting terms, participating will only take a minute and some scrap yarn. I know y'all have some of both. If I can do it, you can TOTALLY do it too!

The project aims to help out a local (to Anna) nursing home in need of some love and holiday cheer. Maybe next year we can all do the same for our own local nursing homes, but this year Anna and her granddad need our help.

Will you please donate a few hours, yards of yarn and stuffing to make a few ornaments? Need some motivation? How about a FREE skein of Lotus Yarns in your choice of colorway? Yup. The knitter who sends Anna the most ornaments by her birthday (Dec. 12) wins a free skein of yarn.

Ready? Set? KNIT!

Cast on Craziness

Howdy! Merry Turkey Day and stuff(ing)! Hardy har. Ahem.

Yes, I'm a nerd, shush.

I hope you're all having a great holiday! My plan is to do as little as possible - mostly watching movies and knitting (shhh don't tell my mom). We won't do Thanksgiving until Saturday where we'll meet up with Nate's family for the UGA/Tech game, a birthday party, and a turkey dinner. Do it big, right?

I still knit, I swear. In fact, I've cast on so much stuff lately that I'm going to have to buy a new set of needles because I've run out of Denise cables. Knitpicks perhaps? I'd love to splurge and get the new Addis set, but I don't know that it would be a good investment at this moment, what with Christmas and traveling to DC on the horizon.

Wanna see what I've been working on? Seriously, somebody stop me. I think my castonitis might be a procrastination technique. Or maybe it's a way to channel my anxiety*. Whatever, it's not cool.

Witness.

I'm about to cast on for Transistion Gloves using these two Dream in Color colorways (Wisterious and Visual Purple), as soon as I can figure out how to buy the pattern.


I'm working on a 3x1 rib sock in some Shibui sock yarn that I couldn't walk away from at Knitch a few weeks ago.


Then there's the Men's Cashmere Scarf from Last Minute Knitted Gifts for a friend in some Berroco Ultra Alpaca.


And a baby sweater (1st birthday) that's two weeks late and still needs sleeves in some Berroco Comfy (or something).


My momentarily-ripped-but-about-to-be-recast-on Hourglass Sweater (also from Last Minute Knitted Gifts) in Noro Cash Iroha. I don't know what I was drinking when I cast on the size 41. OHHAI. I'm barely a 37 bust. Jeebus. Regardless, I want this bad, so I'm starting again today.


And I'll be magically transforming this skein of Twinkle bulky into a moebius cowl this afternoon. Cause, you know, I totally need one. RIGHT NOW.


Nevermind this Purl Soho Scarf I've been working on for a few months.


There are also two pairs of socks in the works, and an alpaca hat I can't seem to find. I think my hands may have missed the knitting.

This is just too much. I have to finish something, right? Jeez.

Anyway, hope you all have a great holiday! The semester is almost over, so I'll be back soon!




*So I had a freak out day (or two) a few weeks ago and couldn't get myself under control and therefore went to the doctor to "discuss" anxiety meds. He gave me some. I am taking them. The first day I wasn't so sure. I felt extremely fucked up. The second day wasn't much better and I said forget it. I'd rather be freaked out all the time than feel like an insane person. A few days later I decided to give it another go. So far so good. Suffocating under the anxiety = bad. Breathing = good. I'm only able to take half a pill a day, and I discovered the hard way that even half a Xanax on a bad day is TOO MUCH. Maybe an eigth would be ok, but a half knocked me out for several hours. I can't be productive if I'm asleep. I'm absolutely fine though, I've just taken on WAY too much and I can't walk away from any of it. It will work itself out very soon.