Random Doings

Naturally I posted that stuff about someone's lunch in the beer case and the next day it was GONE. Our local big-box indoor walk-for-your-health club is undergoing a MAJOR (pain in the tokus) renovation so just about every bigwig in the country is in and out of there. Someone probably got their pants chewed for sure.

And, while we were walking, we encountered some unexpected art. Well to some people I am sure it just looks like random spray paint on a shelf, but to me it looked like art.

Huh, the guy on the commercial that was just on TV said "thrust." Maybe I am just hormonal.

Speaking of commercials, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the pothole commercial. The voice and mannerisms of the person who speaks for the pothole are so much like my DD#1s lifelong best friend, I almost wonder if they paid her to do the voiceover. Knocks me out every time I see it. ROFLOL

Well since I wrote the other day, I have finished the toddler sweater I was knitting for Kyrie. Here it is, being blocked. Which took 2 days because it has been raining. The air has been so damp, the cotton took forever to dry. The buttons don't show well, but they are paua shell buttons, bright chartreuse green iridescent.

I started a pair of slippers for Kyrie's brother. He is a month (maybe 2?) younger than my B, but he is bigger. A moose. Anyway I took some of the lime green and hand-dyed it to a nice, earthy, boyish brown with greeny shades in it. So I am going to knit him slippers and a hat, the slippers mostly brown (so they don't get dirty) with a green cuff, and the hat mostly green, with brown stripes.

And then since I have nothing else to do, no challenges to speak of, I decided that the toes of the slippers should have R on one and L on the other in intarsia knitting. Doing them toe-up gives me a chance to short-row the toes. This is what I have so far.

And speaking of challenges one doesn't speak of, today I have been passing a kidney stone. Not enough that I have had food poisoning that has lasted me several days, no, today I have to add a pokey stone. So tonight I passed it.

Them.

All 3 of them.

Alright, on to something better! Today I dyed another skein of recycled yarn. Well first I dyed it randomly red and blue on an off-white base of Shetland wool. Then I plunked the entire thing in a pot of purple dye. I love the results! It is available in my Etsy shop!

If nobody buys it, I might have to knit this one up myself.

Went to the firing range yesterday, and shot very well indeed. I also took the guys there, some Sour Cream Blueberry Muffins (recipe here). Whaddya know, they are starting to remember me by name.

I think I might be getting to the point of not needing to go practice so much. WHAT did I say? Forget I said that. By the way, our mall is NOT posted Firearms Prohibited. ~happy face~

It's Been a Week

or more since I posted. Wanna know what we have been doing?

Started off with the Knoxville Creative Hands Street Team show and sale, cost us $70 for the booth. Diantha sold ONE yarn, Des sold 1 bag. My dh sold enough soap to cover the booth. Here is a pic. I sold NOTHING.

Got my period (sorry if TMI) 4 days early, during the craft sale. Came down with the flu, during the craft sale.

While down this week with flu, we found out that the little girl next door who spent the night a few times recently, gave my kids lice. In 23 yrs. of homeschooling, none of my kids have ever had them. I don't know how people whose kids are in school can cope with this happening. I have had to drag my fevered butt out of bed every day this week to treat hair, bedding, etc.

I passed a kidney stone this week. And despite the weakness and flu and pain, did several new yarns.

My dh, while working under the house to put in a new drain for the washing machine, to move it to the new laundry area, broke a water main. I have never seen this before, but the main water supply coming in to this house, at least the only one we have found so far, is a rubber hose coming up out of the ground. Crazy. We have had the water shut off for 36 hours now. He filled buckets of water we could flush toilets with. Has bought the wrong parts twice now... once PVC instead of CPVC, and once the wrong size screw clamps.

Beverly took a new, 2-year-old's-eye-view pic, This one of Diantha.

Meanwhile my 11yod has oil in her hair for 8 hours today because the water isn't back on, to wash it out. And the water isn't yet back on because...

I sent my 17yos off to the PO today (3 miles away) with a package of yarn to mail. On the way, a car cut him off, sending him and the motorcycle (a classic 1973 250 Suzuki) off the pavement. The police called to notify us he was in the ER. Full chest/spine/cranial CAT scan AND xrays, hand xrays, road rash down his Left arm, stomach, legs (but not into muscle), broken Left collar bone. Spent 4 hours in the ER.

The Officer said he wasn't doing anything wrong, was riding slowly at the time (20mph), but cited my son for no motorcycle permit (I was supposed to take him this week but sick) and no insurance. Plus the cops had the bike towed, NOT by the company that honors my AAA. We don't know yet if the bike will recover. It has been an $8000 day w/no health insurance. We are glad our son is ok. Motorcycles are great, and we love them. You can't help the jerks out there. BUt they are, after all, only metal and rubber. They are fully replaceable. People are not. So we breathe a prayer of thanks tonight that our Artemas (Greek name means Safe and Sound), though hopped up on hydros, is truly Safe and Sound.

And I am really, really, tired.

Oh, Alpacas!

Today the kids and I went to the alpaca farm. I should say, the kids and Richard and I, and Des and her 2 kids, and my BIL and niece Dana.

We were greeted by Max, the VERY old Great Pyrenees hound. He did his best to keep up as we went around the farm. Here he is being petted by grandbaby Jeremiah.
We got to see the Expecting Ladies (there are 23 in this pic!). Half of these are due soon, and half due in the Fall. It takes alpacas 11.5 months to have a baby. As things stand, I have spent 5 1/2 years of my life being pregnant. SOOOooo glad I am not an alpaca!


There was a pen for the nursing babies. One mom had been shorn for breeding, and her baby too. We have had warm weather, in the 70's! And now this week it has been COLD, in the 40s at night. Today was overcast and windy, in the mid-50s. We all needed sweatshirts. That mom and baby were shivering today!

There was also a pen for the weaned babies. She said she tries to halter break the babies before they wean, so they don't associate the halter with being deprived of Mama. ONE of the babies in this pen is not weaned, so its mama is in with it. But Sherry said Next Week, LoL! Better enjoy that last little bit of milk, baby!

She had 2 pens just for the "boys"... one for "teenagers," which are about 2 years old and of market age if she is of a mind to sell them. One pen just for Grownup boys... 4 years old, and she said actually a little old for selling. Good for breeding tho! And then there was a pen for her stud... a gorgeous all-black alpaca. He had 4 ladies in with him. She said they come into heat a few days after being put in his pen and get to stay about a month or so, to make sure the pregnancy takes. We didn't get pics of all the boys, sorry. I heard someone say he wished he were an alpaca! (No names here!)

Sherry let the kids all pet a couple babies. Just above on the Right you see Jeremiah, Josiah and Artemas petting a Huacaya baby, the youngest on the farm. They have a deep, downy, nappy coat like a sheep (only softer!). Here to the Left you see Diantha holding grandbaby Hannah down to pet a Suri baby. They have a stringy, slightly oily coat that is also incredibly soft. In the foreground is my niece Dana's head.

Not to be outdone, Beverly had to pet something too. Here I am holding her down to touch the Suri baby. (I am not kidding when I say my hair is colored purple, LoL!)

We had a good time talking to Sherry, and the older girls and I are invited back in a little while to spend some time spinning. We are looking forward to it! And then...

When we got back to the house, we had sandwiches that we had taken along for a picnic but TOO cold! Then we did some spinning and Des did some knitting on her shrug. For Christmas I bought her various batts of red Merino wool and others that had black in them, and bamboo, etc. She spun up a gorgeous set of yarn skeins and is knitting this without a pattern. When she is done, she is going to edge the neck/shoulder/back edge with handspun black Merino. Bravo, Des!

While all the kids were having fun, running around and discovering earthworms in the moist dirt, Veronica didn't feel very well. She endured the trip stoically, then went to bed at home. Where I went to lay with her and sing to her and fell flat out of her TALL antique-frame bed. She said I was funny. Sometimes I feel funny, all right. Downright Stinkin' Hilarious. I managed to make it through the song on the 2nd attempt, without gravity getting the best of me.

And one last, happy note. Remember my kidney stone attack from 2 months ago? And that I posted I have been in almost constant, dull pain from it? Well on Sunday the pain became acute. Today all that pain paid off. Yes folks, that is a 7 mm kidney stone. A .5 mm (that is half mm) stone would put most people in the hospital on IV pain meds. That pic on the left was taken on Sunday, with a house full of company and a stone stabbing me. Do I look like I can scarcely believe it? Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. You saw it here.

Pain is Just Weakness Leaving The Body

Yesterday we ran around. During the runaround, we managed to find an obscure little town with an even more obscure firearms place, that was packed with people. It also looked like someone's garage with glass cases with guns, shotguns sitting out where you could handle them, stacks of boxes and cases of bullets piled everywhere, and holsters and scopes on the two merchandise racks in the place. Everything was piled with dust too. Hmmm. Guess with the breathing problems I have, I didn't stay long in there!

I also managed to get my application in at the DMV for my carry permit. And, we found a treasure trove of a thrift store with about 2,000 sweaters... all half price. I showed remarkable restraint, and only bought 11 of the very choicest fibers in pale enough colors that I can dye them. Aren't you proud of me?

Yesterday I listed a 2nd skein of the Mordor yarn that sold in only hours, and the baby hat that I listed in my HeartFeltFun shop that also sold in mere hours. Here it is pictured with a quarter. I made this hat to fit a preemie of 25-32 weeks gestation (or to dress a stillborn preemie).

Today we stayed at home more, but not entirely. This morning Veronica came to my bed, saying she wasn't feeling all that great. Then she sat up and puked on my bed, my sheets, my quilt, and my carpet. Good morning to me! Originally washing several loads of sheets, blankets, and quilts wasn't on my agenda for the day, but that is what having kids will do for you! Makes you master of Plan B.

After cleaning that up, we went walking. Came home, packed up orders and did school. Took the orders to the PO this afternoon, got my fingerprints taken for the gun permit, took dinner to Richard, and went to IHOP for the free short-stack pancake special.

I got one new yarn listed in my my7kids shop at Etsy, this one is Samwise Gangee, the gardener and dear friend of Frodo Baggins. Don't even get me STARTED on the names. ROFLOL!

I also made a new rucksack or drawstring handbag or knitting bag, from a ramie/wool/acrylic/nylon blend sweater that I hand dyed. It is lined with dark magenta print cotton and has a couple pockets. Ramie doesn't felt and the wool content isn't enough to have done so, but ramie is a short-staple fiber like cotton, and sometimes the yarn can't be unraveled because it breaks too easily. That was the case with this sweater, and no sense wasting it! LOL!

It has been 3 1/2 weeks since I had that really bad attack on my kidneys, and while I have not been in constant pain, I haven't passed anything either. But tonight I have been in incredible pain again, like something large is finally trying to get out. So this is it for now, signing off to a few aspirin and hopefully some sleep.

Pain, Pain, Go Away

I woke up today in almost no pain around my middle. I should have known I would pay. It is my history with these kidney stones, that if I don't have pain in all the normal places, I have it in my head. I have had a headache today so bad it has had me in tears. I have taken aspirin in triplets every 3 hours to no avail. I have wished someone would shoot me. About an hour ago I took a vicodin... and I feel marginally better. I hope this stone passes soon, because we only have 8 of those left.

So today I got a yarn done. I had a customer write to me and say she could just kick herself for not buying my Will Scarlett yarn last August, and did I think I could re-create it? So I wrote her back and told her the only thing I had available was a 100% silk in the correct weight and color to take the dye I needed for it. I quoted her a price and she said she would take it.

OY!! I started unraveling that sweater and the yarn was completely un-plied. Like 6 threads of silk just running together. I spend quite a bit of yesterday and about half of today (with my head throbbing), plying that yarn back together with a drop spindle. Tonight it is dyed and hanging in my bathroom. I will stick to my original price, because I could not do the skein without 3 knots. But I think I am going to throw the rest of the sweater away, silk or not.

I did another yarn today, luscious worsted weight Angora in pink, red, deep red, and purples. Hopefully it goes up in the shop tomorrow.

I did 2 blocks today, an Annie's Choice for yesterday
(even though I didn't have to do one) and the Ocean Waves the calendar called for today. I did it badly, marking it off my Quilts-I-Want-To-Do list. LoL. The Annie's Choice is the one with a pointy black (I know it looks navy blue) pinwheel in the middle and purple points around the edges. The Ocean Waves is the one with the triangles up the middle. Both of these blocks are 6.5" square.

Tonight we played with the drum carder some more. I have decided to card half that black/brown/blue roving to spin from the tweedy, carded batt... and to spin the
other half of the yarn from the roving, which will give me a random, speckled effect when knitted. I don't think I will ply them together, but rather knit a project in stripes of one yarn and then the other. I think it will be interesting to see how different the same wool, same colorway will look.

Remember my felted slipper of the yarn I spun from little balls of purple mystery wool that weren't carded? Well tonight we carded some of them. I have enough of them left to do 2 batches alike, for 2 carded batts alike. I didn't use any of the balls with the little hot pink nepps in them for my slippers. This should be a really fun yarn when it is carded. Might be destined for a hat and gloves or something else fun and visible.

Kidney Stones SUCK

I am having a kidney stone tonight. Blek.

I am kind of used to it... I have chronic stones and have been passing them for more than 20 years. Two years ago I passed an 8mm stone on my own. A doctor said, we almost always have to remove a stone that big by surgery. I said, I have passed bigger stones than that at home without as much as an aspirin. Of course, I thought I was going to die, but by the Grace of God I didn't and got it out (and over 100 smaller stones washed out in its wake).

One time when I was working at Kmart, I was helping unload a 1200 piece truck. I knew I was having a kidney stone, I was in pretty bad pain. I have a HIGH tolerance for pain, so pretty bad pain to me is enough to land most people in the hospital on Morphine. LoL. I went to the bathroom and passed a 5 (five) mm stone. I washed it and wrapped it in a towel. Went back and finished helping unload the truck.

When I showed it to my boss, he said, "OH, Nikki! I saw you leave during the truck! I didn't know you went and lost a TOOTH!" I said, Bryan, that is a kidney stone. He nearly passed out. The year before, he had one that was .5 (half) mm and had to go to the hospital.

Anyway usually I barely even take aspirin. But tonight I took a vicodin 500. I still have a little pain, but not enough to make me want to die.

I was working on some yarn this evening earlier, and didn't get it done. Today was a no-block day (just a pic of a quilt on the calendar), and I usually make something up. But today I didn't.

God's grace is enough for me, no matter what. Maybe I will hurry and pass this stone so tomorrow I can get on with life. Tonight, I am going to bed.