Wednesday, March 11, 2009

March Madness

I have to say, I'm not much of a sports fan, but when your team is in playoff for the NCAA tournament, I do watch a bit of basketball. Go Orange!

Lately, when I'm not watching basketball, I've been watching old episodes of twin peaks online http://www.mahalo.com/Watch_Twin_Peaks_Online. I remember this show and how creepy it was from the 80's, but I never saw the end, or I don't remember seeing all of it. It is good to bring back the old days.

I was amazed at how much tv is now online, before I moved to the new house in SYR, I thought I had to have cable in order to have anything to watch. But, really all I ended up watching was network tv and HGTV shows. How many house hunters can one girl watch anyway? So, now that I'm moved and I don't have cable, I don't miss it at all. Some nights, like tonight (Wednesday) tv stinks, but I can always find an episode of something on line to watch, or get a movie from hulu.

I think living frugally is beginning to settle on me. Now if I could get the food bills down. I was reading this frugal moms blog about margarine over butter and why she gets margarine. Is margarine that much cheaper that it makes that much of a difference? I buy butter, for me it is like decent yarn, you get what you pay for and butter is worth the sacrifice in my household anyway. I'll give up oreos and orange juice first.

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Forgot my knitting

I can't believe it, since I moved to Syracuse in July, I have been traveling back to my home in Eastern NY every weekend, plus traveling all over the US for work. So, this weekend, when I am inches away from finishing up the Vanda sweater from the summer 08, Knitter magazine.
http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/vanda

It has been a pretty easy knit, and I have been finishing up the sleeves all week in anticipation of doing the neck this weekend, and getting the damn thing finished. I don't know where my mind is. So, as I didn't have anything else to do, I had to cast on a new pair of socks.

This was a yarn blank that was a gift from my yarn wholesaler last summer. It is Blue-faced Leicester in one of those flat pieces you dye and then knit from. i thought these were all two strands, but apparently not, this one is just one. I dyed it with cochineal and logwood purple, and really like the colors I got. It is nice to save some yarns out for yourself and not feel too guilty about it!

I have new yarns up on ETSY, so go take a look. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5055805

Thursday, January 01, 2009

Back from beyond

Well, back anyway. The fall travel has ended at long last, I returned from Buenos Aires with no yarn to show for it. it amazes me that I was given the opportunity to travel to South America again and I missed the chance to get great yarn at fabulous prices. True, i did get yarn last time I was in BA, but this time I promised myself I would make it Scalabrini Ortiz (we were only 10 blocks away in the hotel) and get yarn.

Well, that didn't happen, but I did get to see two different sides of the Argentine health care system.
One was a bit scary, like the emergency room gurney in the photo below, with another patient next it- (a real lack of privacy here). Best part was, the hospital was only going to ask for a 8 peso donation for 2 xrays, an ambulance ride, all of the blood tests and the doctors visits. We donated quite a lot more.
The otherhospital was outrageously overpriced, but very clean and lovely ($5000 US for an overnight inpatient stay- US not pesos, so I would have been over 15000 pesos!) I had two students who had medical emergencies when we were there, so as the leader I had to go along.
For a bit, it looked like I wasn't going to make it home for Christmas, but then finally things worked out and we all made it home safe and sound.

Tomorrow I go back to work after begin off for 9 days, the longest time I have been home since I had Nate in 1999. I got some work done, including sone new yarns to go on Etsy.

For those of you who have asked, yes, I am still dyeing yarn. But, the majority of that yarn is being sent to Cherry Tree Hill Yarn who buys it wholesale and resells it to her customers, some shops here in the US, some online retailers in the US and in Europe. I stopped the Etsy store when my travel schedule and work life made it impossible for me to consistitently fill orders and mail packages on time. (This fall I was on the road two to three weeks at a stretch). So while I could dye yarn when home for a few days, I couldn't get photos and posts done)

So, we are now in the spring and I hope to devote myself again to posting and selling yarns through the etsy store.

I've also been toying with the idea of a natural dyes podcast. It is really amazing how many questions I get via email about dyeing with natural dyes. So, I thought it would be a good way to help teach other people about this great creative way to get new, unique colors and blends of colors.