Fibercrack’d

Health:  I have a cold. A cold that I’ve been fighting for weeks.  A cold that has had me living with a headache for 2 weeks.  A cold that finally hit today…the day before Thanksgiving.  And a cold that is making me a whiny, mean, lazy, miserable person.  Yes, worse than normal.  Okay, who said that?

Home & Hearth: We just had to replace the water heater.  Yikes!  It went out during my weekend dye session. Double Yikes!  But now we have a brand-spanking new, energy-efficient “green” one. AND we have a few $$$ less in our wallets.  Thank DOG for Home Equity Lines of Credit!

Oh, and thank you everyone who PMmed, IMmed, e-mailed, or plurked me to find out if we were okay during this last rash of terrible fires.  The Brea fire was the one closest to us, getting to within 8 miles of our home. It forced us to leave my nephew Levi’s 1st birthday party early.

And when I say “forced” I mean the DH didn’t listen to the Little Brother WHO IS A FIREFIGHTER therefore the resident expert, and panicked and made us all go home … just in case it all took a turn for the worst.

Yeah, and the worst we had to endure was terrible air quality and lots and lots of ash…which was falling like snow.

I left that playing in that awesome jumper with all my nephews for this? Sheesh!

Chrissy, my SD had to cancel her visit this Thanksgiving, but for good reasons.  She got an awesome job.  The company she works for shuts down for the week between Christmas and New Years so she and Marina will be visiting at Christmas instead.  I can’t believe the grand daughter is almost 2!  They grow up WAY too fast.

Contest: Yes, we have winners.  No, I haven’t updated the contest page with those winners, but if you’d like to see who it is, here’s the blog post. Go ahead and check out all the amazing entries!  And after careful and considerable deliberation (yeah right) I’ve finally gathered all the added little goodies, and I’m getting ready to pack and ship, so they’ll be going out next week…I hope.

Dyeing: Yes, I’ve been working on restocking the store.  I’ll be introducing one or 2 new colorways to the next store update.  I’ve also decided that since JenLa was such an integral part of my life for so long, that I’m not going to completely discontinue that colorway.  Instead, I’ll be dyeing it upon request.

I don’t think I’ll be updating the store until right after Christmas.  So many people are on yarn diets for the holidays, and are sticking to them.  Good for them, bad for me.  It’s my strategy to catch them on the other side of the diet, starving for new yarn purchases.

Also, I’ve been doing the mad scientist thing, trying to come up with the perfect colorway for the Knitting Purls Indie Dyers’ Sock Club.  I’m Miss January, and I’m trying to capture the essence of that month, which isn’t particularly easy, seeing as I live in the land of perpetual summer.  BTW, there are still spots open, and she has flexible payment plans, so you better hurry.  You wouldn’t want to miss the first shipment, now would you?

Designing: Yeah, I’ve been designing like a madwoman.  Seems like every time I swatch a stitch pattern, 10 more designs using variations of that pattern spring to mind.  It’s crazy!  The design submission for Twist Collective Fall 2009 is almost done.  The pattern will have 2 versions.  Unfortunately, I’m not satisfied with the way the second version turned out, so I’m going to revamp it, hoping it won’t be so over-the-top.

I also have a couple of sock patterns on the drawing board for a book I was asked to contribute to, as well as at least 1 design submission to the Knitting Purls Indy Designer Contest.  And of course, I can’t do anything easy.  No, I have to choose a technique I have never done before and design a knit in it.  And I can’t do it any other way.  Or I’ll be all butthurt.

And those are just the deadline-oriented designs.  I’ve probably got about 8 ideas for new one, in addition to Hoban, Zoe, Haven and Tenderfoot.  I guess I shouldn’t resent these spurts of intense creativity.  I mean, the alternative is unthinkable!

Blog:  Lately I’ve been scrambling to transfer most of my JenLa posts over to here.  Yes, JenLa will be a blog of the past.  I couldn’t sum the reasons up any better than Jen did on her new blog, so instead of stating a “me too”, let me just direct you all to her very-well-put post at her new digs.  Make sure you visit there often!  In fact, put it in your RSS reader and blogroll.

I’m still making sure all the furniture fits before I declare that I’m all moved in.  And knowing just how technotarded I am, you all should be duly impressed!  At any rate.  Welcome to you who have just arrived via JenLa.  I hope to have this place all spiffed up and comfy cozy in no time.  In the meantime, might I interest you in a timesuck?  Here are a list of a few of my favorites:

Plurk

Molehill Empire

Dragon Cave

Tribal Wars:  (If you join, leave me a comment and either me or Miss Violet of Lime and Violet fame will invite you to our tribe)

Have a great holiday weekend USA readers!