Unfortunately this post is not about cooking food, but cooking people!  Goodness, gracious it’s HOT here in central Indiana.  The heat index is 99 degrees here and the humidity has dropped to 59% (from a high of 93% this morning at 6).  I usually walk each morning from 7 until 7:30 with another lady in my building at work, but not this morning.  There was a heat advisory out this morning and I heeded it.

So, what am I working at the moment?  Yup!  Wool! 

Here is where I am at on the newest pair of socks.  I love this colorway and am going to enjoy them this winter.

And here is the warp for a scarf I am getting ready to weave.  This yarn is Kauni and Susan, my LYS owner, picked it up while on a trip to Denmark.  Each ball is marked with a code for the color, but the balls don’t look alike because each is started at a different part of the color sequence.  While the yarn I am using as the warp started at a lovely copper color, the weft yarn starts at the oak-brown color, then goes through the color sequence from there.  This ought to be a very pretty and interesting scarf when I am done. 

And I have some lovely copper beads that I intend to use on the fringe to dress it up a bit.  If luck is on my side, I hope to get it woven off in the next week, then I’ll do the fringe, wet finish it, then steam press it with my press.  I think it will be perfect for the autumn, and I wear these colors quite a bit.

I’m hoping that working with these items for the cooler weather will either cool me off by thinking of crisp, cool autumn mornings, or will give ol’ Ma Nature a hint to give us a bit of a break.

I have had so much happen lately, it’s going to take a few days to tell it all.  I wanted to start telling you over the weekend, but our internet computer is starting to wimp out on us (okay, it IS over 10 years old) and just bringing up Photoshop took nearly 5 minutes.  I gave up and let Scott do his magic, but by the time he got the old beast running half-way decent, it was past my bedtime.

Let me start with what happened on Saturday and combine it with a Colors of May post.

Scott and fellow comic book artist, Paul McCall, drive up to Ft. Wayne to attend Summit City Comic Con for the day.  They both had tables in Artists Alley and both did quite well.  This is Summit City’s first year and Scott said they had it set up far nicer then anything he’s seen before. 

While the cat’s away, the mice will play!  Instead of spending the day cleaning on my studio, I played!  With the whole day to myself and not having to worry about what Scott would enjoy (or not enjoy as the case may be) doing, I gave some serious thought as to what I wanted to do.  And it quickly became this!

This particular Kiln Creations is in Noblesville, Indiana, which is only 15 minutes from home.  I have wanted to paint a plate since I heard about it, and Saturday was the day!  Elizabeth, the lady running the place for the day was really nice and we chatted about weaving, gardening, dye plants and Neil Gaiman books while I carefully tried to recreate my logo on a piece of bisqueware.  Luckily, pencil marks disappear when the plate is fired.

I am really pleased with what I did.  I am no painter – shoot, I can barely draw and my art tool of choice is Photoshop – but I think I did a good job for a beginner.  This took about 2 hours to do, and I had so much fun I can hardly wait to do it again.  I think the hardest part is waiting the week for the plate to be fired to see what it looks like done.  The purple and green should be much darker then in the photo and I’ll be curious as to how the sheep will turn out.  Personally, I am really proud of my shuttle!

After I had finished painting, I was hungry (it was 3:30 and I had had breakfast at 6 that morning), so I went to a little shop called Alexander’s, which is also on the square in Noblesville.  They are really known as an ice cream shop, but I got a nice chef salad, then splurged for two pieces of South Bend Chocolate butter toffee covered with milk chocolate.  Yum!!!

From there, I decided I needed to walk off a bit of the candy, so I walked around the square and took pictures of the flowers.

The roses were absolutely beautiful!

The courthouse looked lovely all drenched with sunlight.

 And then I saw something I had never seen before….

 A tree wearing fishnet.  I’m sure it is being shunned by all of the older trees for its “unbecoming” attire, but it stood there proudly, showing off its modern glory.  What do those older trees know about tree-fashion anyway?

When I got home, I walked around the yard and took other pictures of flowers.  Remember this bush that I wacked the heck out of and said that if I had killed it I wasn’t going to be heartbroken?

Well, obviously not only did I not kill it, but it is thriving!!!

It even has flowers on it, which the humming birds will be thankful for.  Of course, I still don’t know what this bush is called.

 And then there are my peony bushes.  I have three different varieties.  First to bloom was this delicately colored white with a slight pink blush to it. 

The second is this wonderful, frothy pink.  It reminds me of a girl’s first prom dress and I think this one is called Strawberry Sherbet (if I am wrong, please correct me on this).  I love this particular variety.

The third one has not bloomed, yet, but it should any day now that we have lots of sunshine and hot, muggy temps.  It will be a deep wine red.

I think these are called Sweet William, but I am not for sure.  Again, please correct me if I am wrong here. 

My purple spirea is blooming, also, and these bushes have grown a lot since last year.  For some reason they have decided to double in size, which is great!

At my office are these sweet little pansies.  I just love the wee money faces on pansies.

That’s it for today!  If you are having the same type of hot (mid to upper 80’s) and muggy weather we are having, try to stay cool.  Also, think of me tonight while I ride around on my tractor mowing my grass for the first time in two weeks tonight.  With all the rain last week, there was no chance to mow it during the week.

Hi, All–Scott speaking here.

Our store broke early this week, and it’s my job to get it fixed. I’ve got everything back up but the pictures that go with the products, and hope to have the whole thing humming along by Monday.

Beware Mercury in Retrograde, I say! Beware!*

Scott

*It’s OK if you don’t get this reference. Ask Benita to explain it in more detail.

Well, I’m feeling better, finally. I’d love to know, though, how one noggin’ can produce that much snot! Ewww!!!!

The down side is that Scott is now coming down with this virus, again! We’ve been passing this thing back and forth for the entire month of February, and now that March is here, it must stop.

So, I am taking all sorts of precautions. Scott is taking the cough syrup I got from the doctor, too. I am changing sheets on beds daily and washing them. We are staying as far from one another as two people in one house can. And we are both resting and doing the inactive things that need to be done.

Today, I proof-read a document for Scott (22 pages) and wrote my part of Johnny Saturn issue 12 script. Also, did laundry and cooked a little. That and rested in between. I’m happy that I made it the entire day without a nap, and feel like I can face work tomorrow without fading before the day is over. Also, I don’t think I’m contagious anymore so I shouldn’t get ostracized at the office.

Thank you for all your wonderful thoughts. I am still bummed that I missed the class, but that isn’t going to stop me from learning how to do tablet weaving. I’ve already talked to Sandy about her showing it to me, so when we get a few spare hours, she can go over it with me.

The only upside to this bug is the lack of appetite. I wonder what I’ll weigh in the morning?

Let’s start at the end.  I finished my Lupin socks last night while listening to Prairie Home Companion – for those of you who listened, wasn’t that tenor awesome?

I don’t know what I did, but these things match except for the toes.  One has more yellow at the end than the other does, but I don’t care.  I think they are cool and I will be wearing them this week to work.

One of the starts I made was cleaning out my front dormer of all my weaving equipment and getting it ready to install my home office.

This home office has been in the front dormer of Scott’s studio, and he wants to turn that dormer into a painting studio.  Also, because of the crowded conditions of Scott’s studio with art equipment, my office really needs to be someplace else in order to be more efficient for me to work.  My front dormer is 8 feet deep and 5 feet wide and will make a splendid office.  And, yes, my bedroom really is that color.  With white bookcases and white tables, it’s going to be a lovely office.  And you should see the fabric I picked out for the curtains.

And the last start of this weekend is washing my second my second Corriedale fleece from a ram named Ule.  This particular fleece was judged by Judith MacKenzie-McCuin to be a very good Corriedale fleece and I am glad it is mine.  Look at that lovely crimp!

The first fleece is just getting a good rinsing because I don’t think I did a great job rinsing it the first time I washed it.  I am hoping to get these fleeces all ready to ship off to be processed into roving by the end of February, but we’ll see.  I have a very busy rest of February and March to get through and I don’t know how long it will take me to finish this.  For starters, the Ule fleece in the bag is a HUGE fleece.

The snow has melted some here and it actually got up into the mid 30’s today.  I think we are supposed to see snow again tonight or tomorrow, but the last I heard it is to be flurries, only.  Personally, I’m ready for it to go away.

Scott and I have been working together on several T-shirt designs.  This is the first one geared specifically for the fiber community.  These T-shirts will eventually be for sale (in the next couple of months – once we get more done), but I just had to show this one to you and get your opinion on it.

Scott came up with the quote, I did the preliminary sketch for the look, Scott drew and inked the cartoon, and I colored and lettered it.

To celebrate this first design, I would like to give away two T-shirts (white) to you guys.  All you have to do, between now and midnight Sunday, January 24, 2010, is to put a comment on this post telling me what you think of it, if you are a dyer, and, if so, natural or synthetic dyes.  I will randomly draw two names Monday morning and let you know who won.

I love giving things away and I love being creative – what better way to do both?  Have fun!!!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, once again it is that dreaded time of year for accountants and bookkeepers – TAX SEASON!!!  So, guess what I’m doing, some nights until 7 o’clock?  Yep!  You guessed correctly.  I’m up to my nose in stacks of general ledger printouts and the paper dust is causing me sneezing fits.

BUT – I am not letting this affect my diet.  I am getting up at 5 and walking on the treadmill and I’ve gotten in over 10,000 steps the past two days.  How’s that!  I’ve gone back to meditating and my eating is much better, control-wise, too.

And, I have been writing ideas on scraps of paper here and there and have my first weaving project of the year all figured out.  This Sunday, while I have a fleece soaking, I’m going to get the first warp all ready to put on the loom, and if I’m feeing especially energetic, I may even go ahead and get the second warp ready. 

Then, I’m going to finish the Emerald Garden spinning, clean my wheel and get it all nice and shiny to take to the spinning retreat the last weekend of this month.  And dive through all the pretty fiber and plan and replan what to take with me.  Sunday is going to be Funday for little ol’ Niter!

And, I have something special in the works for you, too!  As soon as I get all the details worked out, I’ll spring it on you – probably in the first week of February.  I am so excited about this!

I hope none of you are too hung over from last night’s revelries.  Me?  I went to bed at 9:00, woke up at 4:30, thought, “It’s 2010!” and promptly went back to sleep until 8 this morning.

Part of my 2010 goals include giving back to those around me, starting with this month.  My first give-away is listed in the right-hand column under Freebies.  It’s a wallpaper for your computer and will eventually be a T-shirt design.  Scott and I have been coming up with several ideas for T-shirts, some inspirational like the current wallpaper, and some cartoony, tongue in cheek, and just plain silly.

Another thing I want to give away is yarn, spinning fiber and fabric.  Huh?  Did I get your attention with that?  I have more than I can use for a long spell and I want to share the wealth, so to speak.  Once I get my own collections down to something usable in the foreseeable future, then I’ll switch to other things.  We’ll see what I can come up with for the remaining 364 days of this year.

Today, I am working on getting the downstairs of my house back into some semblance of order after all the remodeling.  We are 95% done (will be 99% done after finishing the laundry room tomorrow) and I want my house back to something I can live in comfortably.

I wish all of you a peaceful, prosperous and joyful 2010.  Let’s pray that this new decade is MUCH better than the last one.

With the diet starting the day after tomorrow, today is the last of many things for a while.  My last smoothie for breakfast, for example.

On Christmas Eve, our office closes at noon and the staff and family go to Benihana’s for lunch – the full spread from salad and soup to dessert.  This is my last large meal.  At least I’m going out with a bang.

I am using today’s weight for my official “diet beginning weight.”  172 pounds.  I knew I’d gain a few over these weeks leading up to Christmas, but I am so more than ready to start this thing.  I hate feeling this fat, I hate the lack of energy, I hate waking myself up snoring, and I hate the way my clothes fit.  Time to fix it.

The unfortunate part is that I am banned from the treadmill for a while.  Remember when I fell a week ago Sunday?  Well, I really banged my lower spine, and my chiropractor took x-rays on Tuesday to assess the damage.  Not good, but fixable.  There’s a lot of inflammation at the moment, and that is why no treadmill until that calms down.  He’s hoping that I can start again next week, and I’ll find out more when I see him next Monday.

For those of you participating in the Last-Minute-Chirstmas-Shopping marathon, good luck and may the stores have what you want at 60% off.

Last night, when Scott and I got home from the art center, I carried my spinning wheel and a large piece of original art I purchased from Vandra Pentecost from the car to our back door.  The second step is broken, and with all the other stuff we have been doing, it hadn’t gotten fixed.  Well, I stepped over it up to the top of the stoop, and my foot slipped.

Scott said I screamed, but all I remember is that falling sensation and finding myself flat on my back with my arms outstreatched.  Thank The Lord I just had the strap to my spinning wheel carrying case over my shoulder like a purse rather than all the way on like a back pack.  If I had, I would have gotten seriously hurt.  My lower back was hurting pretty badly, though, as was my head which slammed into the ground.  The ground had thawed, though, and was very wet, so it absorbed the majority of the impact.

Of course, the first thing I told Scott was “Check the spinning wheel!”  He couldn’t care less about that, and carefully helped me up.  When I finally got into the house and removed my very muddy coat, I checked the wheel.  It looks like it landed treadle side down and not wheel side down, so I’m guessing it’s okay, but I will check it more carefully tonight (I had too much of a headache at that point to pull it out).  The picture managed to make it with no damage, and since it is a pastel, it’s a good thing the glass didn’t break.

Needless to say, I am one sore lady today.  Scott managed, by doing some traction on my neck, to get the top vertebrae to pop back into place, which took away the throbbing headache, but I dreamed of having an aching lower back all night and I’ve been moving very slowly today.  I will say, it’s a good thing I have such a thick skull.

So, safety tip…  Mud Angels are no fun from the top step.  Take my word on this, okay?

Scott has ripped out the back steps and is planning to rebuild them this week and I am not allowed to go anywhere near the place until they have been rebuilt.  I’ll show you a picture of them as soon as they are done.