A slippery iSlope

Jag bought an iPhone last November. At the time, it seemed like such a harmless purchase. His old phone was getting decrepit, and an iPhone is just an iPod with phone in it, right? I mean, it wasn't like he was planning to hang around the Apple Store or start reading Macrumors.com or anything. And besides, the Urbanspoon app is pretty cool. He was a Linux guy all the way, running Fedora on his laptop and a CentOS server at home, and nothing would change that.

This week, his new work laptop arrived. By Steve Jobs's cybernetic liver, I never expected to walk into the living room and see...this!

I can only assume we're going to have to start hanging out in coffee shops and at The Pinhook with all the other hipster Mac weenies.

In other news, we stopped at Tyler's for dinner tonight, and I got the best Pint Night mug EVER. And yes, the beer was actually drinkable (although I would happily have dumped it into a planter if it wasn't, just because I wanted this goblet so badly)!

I maded some stuff

Jag was off camping this weekend, so I had some time to myself for crafty activities. Aside from watching the diabetic-coma-inducing "Miss Potter" (which confirmed my Renee Zellweger dislike), I got a few useful things done.

• A patchwork skirt! I took a New Look pattern for a 3-tiered skirt and altered it so that each tier consists of 8 or more fabrics. I picked out a bunch of teal and purple stash fabric and went to town. Some of this fabric has been with me since the mid 90s and has been used in one or more quilts, so it's a little weird to look down and see it there as part of a garment.
  
  In making this, I learned that gathers are much easier when you 1.) use a strong thread and 2.) use a different colored thread for the bobbin, since the bobbin threads are the ones you have to pull to make the gathers and it's best if you can FIND them. I also learned that getting the "broomstick" look takes a whole lot of drying time. The skirt didn't get as evenly wrinkly as I wanted, so I'll try again when I wash it. I want to make a couple more of these with different fabrics.
  
  Off with her head!
  
  The side!
  
  The back!
  
• I also spun up another bobbin of the purple/black/magenta superwash for the 3-ply sock yarn for someone. I'm trying to get the last bobbin finished up before the Tour de Fleece starts on the 4th. I'm still working on picking out what to spin for that.
• Muffins! I went to the State Farmers Market with my parents and Robin on Saturday and brought home a pint of blueberries (along with goat cheese, salami/provolone bread, tomatoes, peaches and corn). I made these for breakfast using a Fannie Farmer cookbook recipe, and since Jag doesn't particularly like blueberries, it was a nice treat for me.

The End

The weekend so far

Thumper kept me company on the couch while I knitted on Friday.

I finally finished the first sock of the pair I've been working on forever. The yarn is "fine", the pattern is "fine", but neither is that thrilling and this project really just feels like a chore. I want to get the second one done ASAP so I can move on to something I'm excited about.

I'm much more enthused about the dyeing I did on Friday. Two approximately 5oz bumps of Falklands wool, which I've never worked with before. It's quite soft and lofty (it puffed right back up after drying), and I can't wait to try spinning it.

This blue/green one I'm calling Seaglass:

And this one, which I completely adore, I'm calling Woodland Flowers. I love the pink/turquoise/purple/brown combo and the watercolor-y blending.

It's been a very food-packed social weekend: Geek Beer and sushi with a guest appearance by Hunter, a yummy cookout at Jeff and Michelle's, and I'm headed to my parents for a Father's Day cookout in a few hours.

Happy First Day of Summer!

Scaring off the crickets

I haven't blogged in a while because work and other stresses have been kicking my butt and I haven't felt like doing anything blog-able for the last week or so (going to bed at 9:30 after poking around on Ravelry for a few hours does not make for very exciting material). But now I have a few spinning updates.

First up, on the drop spindle, I'm getting close to done with the BFL/Bamboo/Firestar batt I've been spinning. This has been a challenge. Spinning from batts has always been extra-fiddly for me, and the 40% bamboo really makes this stuff slippery and tough to work with, But it's soft and the colors are lovely, and the sparkly bits are great.

I asked Jag to pick something off my Wall 'O Fiber for me to spin on the wheel, and he chose this purple/magenta/black/white superwash merino (which I seem to recall having named "Goth Princess" when I had it up on my Etsy store). I split it into 3 sections and plan on a sock-weight 3-ply. I just finished the first bobbin, and I'm very pleased with the colors. I think this may end up being Christmas socks for someone in my family who likes purple and handknit socks. cough

I've also become obsessed with looking at this 30-lb ottoman-sized pile of rambouillet combed top someone has for sale on Etsy. I don't have $330 plus $40 shipping to spend on fiber, but wow. 30 lbs of wool top to hug and squeeze and call George. That's 15 sweaters' worth of fiber right there.

And lastly, for Robin, an unusual menu selection we recently saw at The Federal (no, I got the pork carnitas and Jag got a burger):

Yay for A/C!

For the first time in a week and a half, we'll get a decent (cool, non-90%-humidity, non-bugs-that-sneaked-past-the-screens-flying-around-the-bedroom) night's sleep.

Spinning batts and yet another WIP

I've been trucking along on making and spinning batts for my Justify wrap. Here's a family portrait of all the ones I've spun so far (no idea yet on yardage, but it's all in the worsted to chunky range).

The 2 batts I made using the Harrisville tweed felting batts made a very rustic yarn, as you can see. The green had more non-tweed fiber carded in, and was much easier to deal with as a result. It was an interesting experiment but I think I'll leave this stuff for the felters, or maybe add just a little to batts in the future. Extensive searches on google and Ravelry don't seem to turn up many examples of it being used for spinning. It's too bad it doesn't work well for spining, because the colors are amazing and I have a weakness for tweedy yarns.

Plying the singles from the below two batts together was totally Jag's idea and I love the result.

As of yesterday I've cast on for the Lutea Lace-Shoulder Shell from an older Spring Interweave. I'm using O-Wool Balance, which is a 50/50 cotton/merino blend. It feels wonderful and should be great for summer. I just hope I don't run out of yarn.

My progress so far:

Quilts and alpacas and vampires, oh my

Yesterday Jag dropped me off at the house of Jeff and Michelle so that Michelle and I could head out for a trip to the fiber festival at the "Got to Be NC" festival and then stop over at Peace College for the North Carolina Quilt Symposium.

We weren't sure what to expect from the fiber festival, but we managed to park and trudge through the antique tractor displays and fair food vendors and make it to the Village of Yesteryear Building (as I like to call it). As "fiber festivals" go, this was pretty sparse, but the few vendors who attended were great and had some good stuff.

Michelle and I split a bag of sari silk that we can drum-card into our batts:

...and then we went in on a one-pound bag of lovely, soft, unprocessed, honey-colored alpaca that we can card up and spin.

I'm beginning to be really glad that I bought the drum carder from HLF, because I never would have considered either of these purchases a few weeks ago. Um, wait, maybe that wasn't such a good idea after all!

I also picked up 10oz of hand-dyed cotton for spinning. This should be enough to make a little summer tank top with, if I can get past the screaming-and-crying part of spinning cotton.

Aside from the handful of fiber vendors and some very friendly folks doing spinning demos, there wasn't a whole lot else to see. We did go down the hill to see the milk goats and alpacas.

After a short detour to the flea market, we hit the road again and headed downtown. The quilt show was somewhat confusingly hosted in a couple of different buildings on the Peace College campus, but once we figured out where to go, we wandered around admiring the quilts and checking out the vendors. I have 50+ quilt photos in a Flickr photoset, but here are a few of my favorites. The venue was pretty crowded and it was tough to get enough space to take full pictures of the larger quilts, and the vendor booths were packed.

I managed to control myself and only bought some batik fat quarters and a pattern.

Then we headed home for gaming, where the vampire came in. Annoying bloodsucking bugger is still running around.

The End

Bad to worse

Bad: The AC has out since Saturday.

Worse: The AC repairman tells you on Tuesday that you "have a problem under the house", which turns out to be a leaking water pipe which has caused a puddle in the crawlspace and probably shorted out the blower unit.

All sorts of random stuff

Weekend breakfasts are the best.

Homemade buttermilk biscuits...

...plus sausage gravy...

...equals nomnomnom!

Also, kitties who sleep with their tongues sticking out are cute.

And I made some more batts.

BFL and mohair and random grab-bagginess:

Harrisville tweedy felting/spinning batt (more felty than spinny, really, it pulls apart in clumps when you try to draft it)...

...plus more random grab-bagginess, and we have this experimental batt:

In closing, the new Star Trek movie was awesome. And who'd have thought that Voldemort, Lex Luthor, Dracula and COBRA would all be fighting the Federation at once? Brilliant!

Action-packed day

(All of the pictures below were taken with Jag's iPhone, hence the worse-than-usual quality.)

Our Day:

1.) A quick breakfast, then a trip to the Hillsborough Farmers Market to stock up on soap and ground bison and local sausages and say hello to friends.

2.) Home for lunch, and then out to Occoneechee Mountain State Natural Area for a hike. This was a new park for us, so we were quite excited. We marched expectantly up the Summit Trail (which is a horrible gravel road, not really a trail), eager to see the "the highest point in Orange County at 867 feet". Well, it turns out that the summit consists of a cell phone tower and an old forest ranger fire watchtower, and you can't see a damn thing. So back we went down the hill to the Overlook Trail, which we surmised would have something to look at, given the name. Once again we were to be disappointed.

No overlook. Denied.

The view is probably pretty, but we didn't feel like plunging to our deaths, so this is the best shot we got.

So. We trudged back down and decided to hook up with the long end of the Occoneechee Mountain Loop Trail. Things were looking pretty bad at this point, what with the trail going right under some high-tension wires...

And some really sketchy descents on poorly maintained winding uneven steps full of ankle-snapping gravel and stone chips.

Then we got lost and ended up on a feeble, overgrown semi-trail that ran along the Eno River and could have used a machete or 3. Luckily, we heard voices at this point, and we encountered Nice Man and his Family, who were walking along the Actual Trail. Nice Man asked us if this was our first time in the park (he must've been psychic! Or heard me cussing a blue streak in the weeds!), pointed out that there was a really awesome quarry about 50 yards back the way they had just been, and informed me that my credit card was about to fall out of my back pocket. So all in all, a most fortuitous meeting. Thanks, Nice Man!

The quarry was most impressive; this is the view of the Forbidden Collapsing Overlook from the ground.

The quarry is many, many Jags high.

After exploring a bit, we headed back onto the Genuine Trail and were blown away by how nice it was. The trail next to the river is shady and lovely and full of ferns and flowers, with plenty of places to sit on the bank and look out at the peaceful waters. These views alone made the trip worthwhile.

The trail winds back around the side of the mountain through some woods that were really lovely and must be totally spectacular in the fall. So, what seemed to be a total bust and waste of time turned out to be really great! The end of the trail is uncomfortably close to I-85, but oh well.

3.) We came back home (by way of the Hillsborough Mapleview Farm store for ice cream), showered (finally!), and then headed out for dinner.

No, there is no such thing as "too much" salmon.

4.) ...And then came home to discover that the AC is dead and we probably won't see a repairman til Monday at the earliest. Ceiling fans ahoy! At least it won't get any warmer than 85 or so.

The End