Feed Me, Seymour!!!

Either I work in the Little Shop of Horrors, or... well, it's just another day at Green Mountain Spinnery. Something got stuck or clogged, and Laurie crawled in to pull it out. As he keeps saying, you'll never get rich at the Spinnery, but you'll have a lot of fun.

Speaking of fun, I wanted to make something romantic but quirky for my beau, and I settled on giving him my heart... my vaguely anatomically-correct heart, that is!



The pattern is from Knitty Winter 2008, the yarn is Ella Rae Classic, and the veins and valve-ends are needle felted.



I brought it to him in a cooler packed with ice. He loved it!

Also, as promised, the handspun FO. Here's the Northumbria Cowl from the Fall 2010 issue of Knitscene. I discovered once it was blocked that the dye in the silk bled onto the white in places, but I think I'm okay with it. When the weather isn't 90°F and humid, maybe I'll model it.



I have the sudden craving to knit up a model of Audrey II, for some reason. Hmm...

Walk Right In, It's Around The Back...

Shortly after I got to work this morning, a crew of high school students descended on the Spinnery to do some landscaping work. The funny part is that they showed up in a VW Microbus with shovels and rakes and implements of destruction. Guess what song was stuck in my head for the rest of the day!

I've been knitting! Really! But I haven't taken pictures yet. I was flipping through the latest Knitscene at work when I saw the Northumbria Cowl and was so taken with the super-simple stitch pattern that I just had to cast on. It's nearly finished (ran out of handspun halfway through the bind-off, so I have to tink back a row), and it's pretty cute. I'll tell you what I plan on making to go with it when I post the pictures.

My last trip to visit my beau involved a romantic stroll through one of Boston's old cemeteries, so while I procrastinate taking pics of my knitting, let me show you these instead: Flickr set: Cemetery.

Next in the crafting queue is one of Voodoo Maggie's Baby Dragons, which, assuming I enjoy making the first one, will likely be made in bulk as presents for everyone I know, because everyone needs this level of cuteness. Srsly.

The last few weeks have been a roller coaster of sorts... one of my friends lost a beloved goatling but gained a cria... I misplaced my driver's license somewhere between Tampa and here, but got a new one (which I needed anyway) this morning... my car's brake pads needed replacing, and I didn't have the $220 the garage wanted, but I have a friend who's a mechanic, so that was taken care of for the cost of parts and a few six-packs of Coke... my dog was in the hospital for almost a week with heat stroke, and came out of it better than the vet expected, though her arthritis seems to be worse... my fridge died, but I got a loaner to last until payday when I'll buy a new one (and deduct it from the rent)... and the abusive ex's repeated attempts to harass me without technically violating the restraining order are making me laugh more than anything else (you'd think someone who claims he wants to get away from me would actually, y'know, get away from me eventually -- btw, if you get an email/call/whatever from him, please forward it to me so I can forward it to the judge).

So, life goes on, and things improve. How are all of you?

She Moved Through The Fair

What's Lilith up to, you ask? Being busy, she replies! Trips to Boston and Florida, encounters with drunken pirates, shy manatees, and haunted stones, and the excellent company of friends new and old have all been keeping me from my knitting, with no objection from me. So instead of showing you the one project I've managed to work on in the last month ('cause it's still not finished), I'll show you some highlights from my trips.


Sylshessa and me at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo


Roscoe the bird, also at the zoo


a playful manatee at the zoo


the vivid carpeting at the Rodeway Inn in Tampa


a unique jerkin from Potted Fox Studios


a haunted place in Brattleboro

Oh, and for those of you who don't follow me on LJ or Facebook, I got that restraining order I was hoping for. The judge found, as a matter of legal fact, that the ex had stalked me, so she issued a final order for six months. It's nice to feel safe, finally.

By Any Other Name

So there I am at work, loading bobbins onto the plying machine, and I hear the bell that indicates there's someone in the retail shop. I go out to greet the person, and she has a vase of flowers in her hands... for me.



The fellow I'm seeing wanted to make me smile, you see. And he did. I've been smiling for hours!

Thank you, darling.

Hulk Smash?

I was going to work four hours this afternoon and then head down to CT for the weekend. However, the coworker scheduled for the first half of the day is down with the flu, so I got a call at 9 this morning asking if I could work the whole day instead. Oh, sure! Scramble to get dressed, make lunch, throw stuff in a bag, and get out the door on time, and I made it. Having expected to spend four hours doing other things before being at work, I was a little out of sorts, and naturally, the first thing I did was injure myself.



It doesn't look like much, but it hurts like the dickens. I was lifting the ramp of the steamer (a big plywood box), and my hand got caught between the ramp and a plastic file crate. Now I know where we keep the bandages at work!

There has been some knitting and sewing (pics eventually), some moving-of-stuff, not nearly enough sorting and clearing, and lots of time spent with dear friends in the last few weeks. Life is getting better, I'm singing and laughing more, and generally feeling happier. I even managed to get to an awesome Dave Matthews concert, where I took some crappy pictures with my phone from my "seat" (read: standing room only) in the pit.



And because it's spring, there are babies everywhere, including at my friend's farm. Isn't this the cutest thing you've ever seen?



I'll be in CT tomorrow, and my original reason for coming down has disappeared, so I'll have some time around lunch to hang out with anyone who feels like calling me. Happy knitting!

The Birds

It's probably a good thing that I haven't seen a certain Hitchcock film, as I've been having some close encounters with my feathered friends lately, and I don't need more reason to be freaked out.

First, there's a pair of what I think are flycatchers that have built a lovely little daub-and-moss nest on top of the security light just outside my front door. I like these birds, and they're very cute, but they're also somewhat territorial, and every time I leave, I have to pass right under their nest. They don't like this at all. They hover a few feet from my head and snap their wings at me, then pop off to the nearest tree and angrily chirp at me until I get in my car and go. I wish I could relocate them to make life a little less stressful for both of us.

Then this morning, around 6:45, I heard some tapping on my window. Initially my heart jumped to my throat and I reached for the phone because the ex has been stalking me, but when I sat up and looked out the window, there was a little bird sitting on the sill, staring at me. I didn't have my glasses on, so I couldn't see it clearly, and as soon as I moved again, it flew away, but it definitely made eye contact.

So that was an interesting way to wake up. Now, because I'm not completely awake and exhausted all of my nervous energy telling you about the birds, I'm going to wrap up this post with some long-awaited pictures. Enjoy!


neckwarmer made with yarn spun from alpaca fiber purchased at CT S&W


fiber purchased at CT S&W


14th-century-style hood made back in January and finally blocked the other day


Jaggerspun 2/20 Cobalt heather


yarn spun from the mystery fleece I picked up at work

More pics next time!

Down With The Sickness

My father has been diagnosed with Celiac Disease. He also has irregular cells in his stomach that might be lymphoma, a common side-effect of Celiac Disease that has gone untreated for years. He must remove gluten from his diet, which effectively means my sister, who lives with him and cooks for him, must remove gluten from her diet, as well. They'll check the irregular cells in two months (after he's been gluten-free for a while) to see if they're lymphoma or not.

This disease is genetic. There is an inaccurate blood test, and symptoms can be so mild as to go unnoticed. If you remember how to do a Punnett square, parent 1 is nn (Celiac Disease is recessive), parent 2 could be anything (nn, NN, Nn), and my chance of having this is all over the map. I'm calling the doctor tomorrow to schedule the blood test, and I may be altering my diet just in case... I probably won't go comepletely gluten-free, but I'll limit my intake.

Just when I think life is calming down a little, I get slapped with something like this. I need a hug.

The Sting

So there I was, yesterday morning, getting dressed. I pulled a folded pair of jeans off the shelf, shook them out, and stuck my leg in. I felt a familiar pinch at the back of my knee, threw the jeans on the floor, and watched a stunned-looking wasp stumble out of them.

Anyone know of a natural wasp repellant? I don't want to bug bomb all of my stuff, but I'm really getting sick of getting stung. This is the third time in a year. Grr.

The other day, one of the ladies in one of my knitting groups brought a few cones of yarn she'd found at the local recycling center. Two black cones didn't interest me, but the peacock-blue laceweight did, especially when I checked the label inside the cone -- Jaggerspun Heather! It's their 2/20 in Cobalt, and it will make a beautiful, lacy something... someday.

Before I find a project for that, though, I need to make a gift for my best friend, who's getting married in July. I've settled on a ring pillow, covered in light purple satin with a white knitted lace overlay. I just need to settle on a lace pattern.

Now if I can just find motivation to do anything on this dreary, rainy Saturday. Tomorrow I'll be at NH Sheep & Wool, and I'm really looking forward to it, making today even harder to get through. Maybe I'll knit a little before I go to work.

Come Sail Away

There is a lightswitch at work with a label below it that reads, "FORCE OF GRAVITY -- DO NOT TURN OFF."

I love my job.

Exhausting Weekend

One of the perks of working at Green Mountain Spinnery is occasionally bringing home free fiber. Today Laurie, the fellow who runs the carder, brought over a pound of "waste" wool and told us it was up for grabs. One of my coworkers and I decided to split it -- I took about 3 ounces, and she got the rest. It's white and fluffy, fresh from the carder, but it isn't the same blend as any of our stock yarns and wasn't part of any of our custom orders, so if we didn't take it, it would be used to clean dark fibers out of the carder before the next run of white, and would be ruined. It was too nice for that. I'm not sure what I'll do with it... maybe play with some food coloring or other dyes and then make a little hat or something.

On Saturday I went to CT Sheep & Wool, hung out with more friends than I expected to see, and allowed myself some very modest fiber acquisition. Sunday I moved the last of my things out of Erik's house. While both days went relatively well, the one-two punch has left me exhausted, bruised, and blistered. I really didn't want to go to work this morning, but I'm glad I did. I think I need to stay off my feet for a few hours, though... owwie.

I'll take pictures of the new fiber as soon as I dig out my camera and find an uncluttered spot to take a picture.