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Saturday, May 26, 2012

Good weekend

Disco & I made it out to Dickson yesterday.  The sign at the entrance said the fiber fair started at noon, we got there a bit after 10 a.m. and it was already getting busy!  Fiber-folk don't want to sleep in on festival days!  We both fondled lots of pretty yarn & fibers, and flipped through lots of interesting books.  I had a tote bag with my newest acquisitions from The Haus of Yarn, picked up Thursday evening:  a few ounces of Corriedale dyed red, and a hi-lo drop spindle by Schact (did I spell that right?).  I was wanting to see if I could begin to understand drafting before taking Fleegle's class (Yes, THAT Fleegle!) at the festival.  And yeah, maybe getting the fiber & spindle the night before was rather last minute.  I did try to get them from Bliss Yarns earlier in the week, but they hadn't either in stock.  Anywhoo, I got to meet & spend some time with Fleegle -- and I did say I'd buy her Supported Spindling book, but that will have to wait until the next payday.  The class was good, and I did learn more about spindling in general and supported spindling in particular.  Supported spindling seems so much easier than drop spindling!  And Fleegle's class materials included a supported spindle & some nice combed roving for each student, so now I have two spindles!  Disco wanted to go out there again today, but it cost us a quarter tank of gas to get there & back, and the pay just won't stretch that far again.  Either she or the Plaidman must get some work and try to bring some more income into Chez Plaid.  Disco had her display, cards, and lots of stitchmarkers and even found a spot to sit in & try to sell a few -- I'm real surprised nobody chased her off.  She says she'd like to get a booth at the fair next year.  I don't think she realizes how much product she'd have to have on hand to fill a booth.  But maybe she could find someone that will sell her a corner of their booth?  I suppose she'd have to get in touch with Three Creeks Farm, the organisers for this little shindig. 
In knitting news, I have been slipping in a few rows at a time, a couple of times a day, on the Every Way Wrap (aka the world's slowest wrap).  The end is nearly in sight.  Will I actually finish it before the weather turns again?  I'd suggest against holding your breath.  Also I finished the second hat for Princess T, but still haven't blocked it.  That would be a good mini-project for the weekend, no?  So, I must run off to chores and then to the fun stuff (blocking, spinning, knitting?).  TTFN!

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Well I'll be...

I believe my gast has been flabbered.  I've been thinking that I wasn't losing any weight with my South Beach-esque diet.  Got on the scales this morning for the first time in a couple of weeks--surprise! I'm a good six lbs lighter than I was last time I checked!  Huzzah! 
That is really all I have to say.  You may return to your regulary scheduled activities.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Big Plans

Disco & I have made our plan for Mother's Day -- it will just be the two of us, as the Plaidman is flying to Chicago to visit his mom, aka Mother of Plaid.  Her health has been failing for some months now, and this is likely to be the last Mother's Day she'll be around.  Hmm, I need to dig up those silk corsages I made a few years ago; he can still wear the red one this year.  Disco has a red one too, while mine has been white for many years.  Do you understand the custom?  Red flowers (either roses or carnations around here) mean the wearer's mum is still among the living, while the white flowers honor a mum who's already passed away.  Nana (my mom) has been gone for over ten years now, and I still miss her horribly.  For heaven's sake, go call your Mom! 
Ahem!  Sorry about that, where were we?  The plan for Sunday: we two Celtic ladies will dress divinely and head over to The Rawlings for the buffet luncheon (where I will try to keep it all "South Beach"--help me), then back to the house for quick change to casual couture and on to the movie theater.  As it's Mother's Day, and I'm the Mom, I'm picking the flick: the new Nick Parks & Ardman feature, Pirates-A Band Of Misfits!!!  I adore these crazy claymation films by Parks!  The Curse of the Wererabbit about did me in, I tell ya.  Chicken Run still makes me laugh out loud.  And the Wallace & Gromit shorts are absolutely deadly, especially The Wrong Pants.  I've lately become a fan of Sean the Sheep, as well.  Do check these out, laughter is such a precious commodity, and this body of work is just chock full of it.  I don't want to slip in any spoilers, but I will say I actually fell off the couch laughing at Wrong Pants. 
Ok, so what's up with this South Beach stuff, anyway?  Well, I'm reading up on it, and sorta/kinda implementing more of the gist of it in my diet as I learn more.  I have found a couple of sites online that are helpful:
http://www.kalynskitchen.com/  (I was looking here before I started this diet)
http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/ (try the search feature)
Anyway, I'm sure there are a slough of sites with SB compliant recipes, and I'll likely look through a bunch more. 

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Monday, Monday

I meant to get to the library to give y'all the Mid-weekend Update, but it just didn't happen over the weekend.  The Plaidman has mentioned that he'd like to retire; I suppose I should have jumped on that mere mention of the possibility with both feet.  Because he's given his notice and notified Social Security that he wants to start drawing -- but not until after his birthday in June!!  So, I'm to be the sole support of Chez Plaid, until SS starts paying him and Dog only knows how long that will take.  In the meantime, the group I work for has changed their payroll processor.  April 13th was their first shot at our biweekly pay, and mine was all messed up:  my name was misspelled on the paystub, and they only deducted about 26% of my insurance premium.  Well, I didn't know a thing about that until the following Monday (I work four 10-hour days, so I can have Fridays off).  I did let my supervisor know about both errors, and thought this would be resolved by the April 27 paydate.  I'd have 164% of the insurance premium deducted, but that wouldn't be too bad...only it didn't work that way.  Neither error was corrected.  IF the correction goes into effect before the 5/11 paydate, I'll only have a huge insurance premium deduction. (For those of you who love figures, it'll be 247.24% of the regular premium.) If it doesn't, I'll be hot hot hot because so much of my pay will be gone all at once! 

Oh, let's talk about something more pleasant.  I'm still working on the Gumball Hat ('coz it looks like an explosion in the gumball factory) for Princess T.  I'd had it done, pulled the last 8 stitches together at the top ...and decided to try it on.  It was so shallow, barely a skullcap.  Back to the drawing board!  I tried to pick up stitches in one row below the crown decreases, and somehow "lost" a stitch (I cheated and made one!).  Then I knit 4 rows, and hey look down there about 16 rows below....one half of the row that's supposed to have YOs and K2Ts doesn't have either.    Sigh!  Picked up (evenly this time) all around just below a purl row, frogged yet again, and now...I'm one pattern repeat past where I'd started the crown decreases the first time.

Plaidman's mum has been very ill, and is now in long-term care.   She's been very depressed, and last week Plaid's brother called to discuss her wanting to stop all care.  She's also been talking about the Plaidman a lot, to her other kids.  So...despite the weirdness with my pay, and Plaidman's retirement (and from what I've heard I don't expect to see SS $ until September), I bought him a round trip air ticket to Chicago.  He'll be spending Mother's Day with his mom this year.  When I told Disco that her dad was going North for Mother's Day, she said, "Good!"  And I certainly don't mind if he's out of pocket that weekend; he ain't my kid!  Disco & I will likely go to a movie (my treat, of course -- she hasn't any money), and maybe a luncheon or brunch.  So it will be just mother & child here, and that's just fine.