the beginning of the end

Oh my... it has been a while.
Shortly after the last post we experienced the first of our snow storms...yay fun.
Then came my birthday...yay me.
And then we had the school Christmas season...yay fun.

Then came Friday the 19th, or as I like to call it "the beginning of the end." The beginning of the huge snow fall and let me tell you: driving twice to the airport during/after a huge snow storm is not my idea of a good time. After the first drop off, I shovel my way into the driveway (the snow plow comes early on my street, its a blessing and a curse--mainly when I have to shovel through 1 1/2 feet of snow and ice). I leave the rest of the shoveling and snow fun to the 18 year old and 4 year old--both fully bundled. After dropping off my other sister at the airport in the evening, I knew I was sick and I had dropped off both my sources of support to the airport. Bad for me.

I've basically been sick ever since, several waves of sickness. Nothing like having a houseful of people re-infecting each other and picking up new things. On the bright side, between the bouts of fever and delerium, I have knit. On the down side, my newly married sister returned from her honeymoon without the camera charger. It's like the camera comes up with new and inventive ways to mess with me.

strings attached

I interrupt my regularly scheduled knitting post to comment on the auto industry.

Now I generally don't approve of far flung money throwing--typically it's a waste of money. However, when an industry's sales figures are off as much as 30% (please keep in mind that the catastrophic retail sales number are projected to go down by 3%) how can the government keep insisting that it's poor design?

The last trip by the CEOs to congress was... a fiasco to say the least (I would immediately fire whoever was in the meeting that decided "hey go to Washington and don't take a single plan about how you are going to cut costs").

The thing is, most people don't see how the auto industry failing would hurt them. I have to wonder about the media coverage that doesn't emphasize the hundreds of thousands of jobs that would be lost, from the corporate offices down to the suppliers and dealers. There is more to an industry than a corporate office and union employees. As someone who has 3 family members working in the auto industry, we know how widespread the ripples can spread.

Those suggesting bankruptcy--do you have any idea how difficult it is for a company to receive financing during the proceedings? Guess what---all those lenders have disappeared, so the company would not be able to emerge from bankruptcy because there is no one to pay the bills.

If a government makes a habit of bailing out a banking industry which took advantage of lax lending standards and is in the process of dragging down the whole economy---there is more that needs to be fixed than just "give the banks some money which they won't lend because they want their balance sheets to look better."

The government has lent to the auto industry before, and they have paid back those loans with interest. Another thing, quit calling it a bailout--its a loan, with strings attached and an expectation that it will be payed back---unlike what is happening with the banks.

This whole thing has me a little tense. Can you tell?

We interrupt your local programming to bring you this:

My right index finger hurts!

That's my mouse clicking finger people!

The horror. The horror.

get checked

Ever have those times when everything just seems to be going on?

So far, we've had two car accidents in less than two weeks--my older sister got hit during the season's first snow/ice storm, her and about 10 other cars where pulled up on the side of the road. She compared it to bumper cars, and then went on and on about how awesome her brakes work ( I guess it's better than finding out your car brakes are total crap). My younger sister--not the teenager--got t-boned earlier this week during another bit of icy/snowy weather, she was waiting to turn left and considering the way she got hit, she's very thankful that oncoming traffic was stopped on a red light.

Both cars have pretty extensive damage--my older sister's audi needs to wait for parts, my younger sister's infinity had over $11,000 worth of damage, this will probably go up once they manage to pry open the doors and see the full extent of the damage.

Luckily they both made it out with minimal injuries, just a case of whiplash for my younger sister. In the meantime, I'm taking my car to the shop to get checked out. Nothing reminds you to have good car maintenance like a couple of accidents.

Knitting content is forthcoming, I just have to yell at my camera and see if I can get it to properly read color. I think it secretly hates me.

Great Times

I had a whole political/change we need post going, but I changed my mind. This is a historic time and I'm glad to witness it, but this is a knitting/spinning/dyeing blog, so let's focus on that.*

Part of my whole let's expand my spinning repertoire, is to try new fibers. On that note I tried Targhee wool from Mountain colors purchased here in the 'Wilderness' colorway. Have you spun this stuff? It is so springy and easy to spin. This would actually be a really good yarn to start spinning on: the fibers have enough crimp and length to cling enough to form singles really easily. The one thing I didn't like was how muted the colors where--but that's just a personal color palette thing.
See I spun this:
and two-plied it here:
It's got purple, green, red, blue, and a little yellow. I thought about navajo plying the yarn, but I decided it would look better with a little more blending of the colors.

Ignore the horrible pictures. My camera has decided it hates taking pictures of yarn. My pink roving comes out orange-y, my blues and purples completely blend together and come out fuzzy--not to mention the purple becomes blue. I don't use flash and take my pictures with indirect light as much as possible.

*plus when you have to use a million exclamation points to write something, distance is usually needed.

can't be bothered

You know you had a good party when it takes you a week to recover, and then came Halloween. My family loves Halloween--my dad, not so much. Luckily he's learned to accept the limited amount of crazy that usually accompanies the occasion.
This year, the holiday was a bit of a bust. Not a lot of people in our neighborhoods passed out candy, luckily the 4 year old enjoyed his 2 block trick or treat walk and then spent the rest of the night bossily handing out candy and chips.
May I just say how annoying I find the large number of teenagers who didn't even bother putting on a costume--really people! The process is quite simple: You dress up in some sort of get up and then I provide candy. Why should I bother to give you candy if you can't be bothered to dress up?

Totally crazy times.

My sister is getting married on Friday (yay!). Luckily she moved up her wedding date because otherwise I may have had to kill her.

A bossy and anal personality does not a peaceful bride make.

As part of our wedding gift for her, my older sister and I decided to make her wedding favors. Chocolate. Little molded chocolate cakes and truffles. Lots of work, but everything is looking great. Of course, I've been covered with chocolate for the past week.

I was planning on knitting her something (this is back when the wedding date was set for December) but then her fiancee got a job in Kuwait and he has to be there in November. I may be able to knit fast when the occasion calls for it, but even I can't pull off a 2 week lace deadline. Especially while planning a wedding for a sister who doesn't like the look of knitted stuff---this said, she got annoyed when I suggested that I was going to knit something for our 2 cousins who are getting married in May and August next year and not her. What kind of knitted piece does someone moving to Kuwait need?