Zombie Burn

Warning! This post is kind of gross!

So my sunburn blistered today...I got burnt on Saturday and it blistered today. It's really gross...no you don't understand REALLY gross. I am not squeamish in any way, I have poked livers heavily affected with cirrhosis in the morgue. I have eaten muktuk. I have plucked chickens and killed and gutted fish. I used to eat catfood and match stick heads (when I was 5 or 6 years old, not recently psshh that'd be gross). I have helped pull a breach calf outta it's momma. I think dead animals are "interesting". But this sunburn is...well it's GROSS.
It blistered and was oozing which I didn't think was tha gross although it did sting. But I was sitting in front of my computer wondering what that SMELL was. It smelled revolting, like death or infection. I can only describe it as what I imagine zombies would smell like...I looked around checked my feet (seriously it's sandal season it's entirely possible that my feet smell like death.)
When I realized the smell was me, well then I got completely grossed out.
I wonder if I have ebola, or maybe necortizing fasciitis...or maybe I am slowly turning into a zombie and this is just the first step of my "death". I guess if I stop blogging you'll know that I have departed for a life of (or death of) eating human brains and groaning uncontrollably.
I might actually start liking the song "Thriller"
It's times like this that I really miss Herman the Spider. I feel like we have a lot in common now...

The Albatross has landed

I finally finished the Kilosweater...the damn thing has been hanging over my head for nearly 4 months. I started this sweater at the beginning of February and have had half of one sleeve to knit for nearly 3 months. It's handspun merino silk. I finished the back, both front pieces, one sleeve and had just cast on the second sleeve when I couldn't wait any longer and decided to sew it together to see how it fit. It didn't. It's much too large. This was incredibly frustrating because I "got gauge" I triple checked afer realizing it was way too big for me and yup...the gauge matches the pattern. So rather than rip out 6 million miles of yarn I decided to finish it up and give it to a friend of mine.
And then I procrastinated.
After that I procrastinated.
Recently I was procrastinating over it...
Today at about 8:30PM I was about to start spinning a lovely bobbin of romney and I said "F%$#! it!" I picked up the last ball of yarn and finished the last sleeve, wove in a bajillion ends and sewed the damn thing together.
Now I have this:This thing weights 1.15 Kilograms. I think it weighs about 15-20 pounds when it's wet (no joke), I pray that Angee does not fall into the water when wearing this sweater, the guilt would kill me...
Thank god it's over...

I have been doing a LOT of spinning and dyeing lately. I am trying to stock up my etsy shop I also found some time to do some spinning for myself. I got some Blue Face Leicester roving from Twist of Fate and it's the most incredible colourway, I came up with the name "Japanese Plum" for it.
These are picures of the singles, I have navajo plyed it to preserve the colour gradations. I think I am going to knit a plain sweater with it to show off the colourss

Also, I just noticed that Herman the Spider is gone...R.I.P. Herman.

The Rock

This morning I got up and went to Saltspring...really early...really, really, early...I got up at 3:15 am. It sounds crazy I know, but when I get up that early I get to my parents house at about noon instead of in the evening so it's like getting a whole extra day there! The trip was fairly uneventful (Except for the part where I really had to pee and there was nowhere to stop, and then I had a severe sneezing attack and thought I was going to pee my pants...not cool...)

I bought this cool ring in Tsawassen for $20 (on sale) it's peridot and I love how it is offset.
I took some pictures of Saltspring from the ferry. Yes I was willing to let myself look like a freaking tourist just for you my intrepid blog followers...

The mountain in the background is Mt. Maxwell where my parents live.
Honestly, sometimes I miss the ocean so much that it is almost physically painful.
After taking the photos I went back to my car and almost freaked out because I thought there was a spider in my pop.
But it turned out to be a bit of fluff. It made me miss Herman the Spider. I am sure he is on my computer patiently waiting for me to return.

In the afternoon we went to Ruckle Days and I forgot my camera. It's at Ruckle Park which is a Heritage Farm. I had a Lion Burger (which is almost as good as a slug burger) watched the blacksmith, talked to some sheep, and watched a chainsaw demonstration. I briefly flirted with the idea of stealing some of the wool from the fibre display but decided not to because it wasn't particularly high quality and if I was going ot commit a crime it should be for the good stuff.

There was an incredible rainbow this afternoon. You can say what you want about hating rain, but you can't have rainbows without it!
You can see at the bottom the little Airstream trailer I stay in when I visit (if it's not too cold!)

There were some strange goings ons throughout the day that involved some chocolate bunnies. Mom had put them in the freezer and somehow they got out onto the counter so she put the in the cupboard. After supper I walked in to see this:

How did he get there? Did he break free from the other bunnies? Is there some kind of strange Cocoa Watership Down going on at my parents house? Not gonna lie, it weirded me out a little bit...


I finished the mystery project on the ferry, which is a Wrenna sweater for Mom for Mother's Day. Here it is blocking:
I also hung out with Calypso for a bit. She was a kitten last time I saw her but now she is all growed up!
Now after a night with less than 2 hours sleep it is time for bed!

In Which Many Things Come to Pass

Words cannot describe the busyness of the last week... Last weekend was the icebreaker softball tournament. Sunday night was my Birthday party (more on that later). Monday was work and the beginning of my Pool League Tournament. Tuesday work, taking my stepdaughter to ball (and was my actual birthday, although I forgot that until I was almost at work). Wednesday was work and silkscreening tote bags. Thursday crazy busy work day and then the Body Beautiful piercing and tattoo show. Friday absolutely insane work day and drive up to Sun Peaks for the Twist of Fate Knitting Retreat. No word of a lie from Monday until Sunday afternoon I spent 5 waking hours at home...

It was all worth it though. As crazy busy as I was, they were all worthwhile pursuits.

My birthday was super awesome. There were a heck of a lot of people there.
I had no idea that so many people liked me, although I do admit the food may have been a big draw...seriously...the food...
I have never seen so much kalamari in my life...there was wings, dry ribs, veggies, fruit, spinach dip, kalamari, meat, cheese...I don't know...it's all a blur...a wonderful sated blur...
My friend Michelle brought a kick ass carrot cake.
There was lots of fun and ridiculousness.
And some karaoke judging.Adam gave me a 10!

I don't know if my brother will ever forgive my for making him wear a Hannah Montana Tiara...
Although Cliffy seemed to enjoy it...
It was without a doubt the best birthday party I have ever had! I asked people to not bring gifts, but if they wanted to they could bring a donation for Knitters Without Borders. We raised $180!

The Body Beautiful piercing and tattoo show was very cool as always. I really enjoy that show because of the eclectic group of people it brings in. There was a professional photographer there, so I will have some professional pics to put up soon. In the meantime here are some I took with my wishy washy little camera.
The knitting retreat was fantastically awesome. The instructor was Barb Brown of Wild Geese Fibres. She was a fantastically cool lady who knew an awful lot about knitting. She was very knowledgable about history so I really enjoyed listening to her theories on the exchange of ideas and information through women travelling throughout history. Her Great Grandmother showed Cowichan ladies how to knit Fair Isle, so I am going to check out her sweaters at the Museum the next time I go to Duncan. It was really nifty to hear about the evolution of the Cowichan Sweater. Barb's pretty famous in the knitting world and she hardly snores at all! (we shared a room).

I learned to knit Fair Isle and I really enjoyed it. I'm not even that great at it and it made me feel like a knitting genius! I can knit with both my hands!! I met lot of cool people and knit all weekend, after the week I had it was just about the funnest thing ever.

So yeah, things are slowing down a little bit now. I am still busy, but not exorcist head spinning busy. Hopefully now I can finally get back to some spinning and glass work, I finally managed to add a couple more products to my Etsy Store, but I have to get batteries for my camera to add anymore...stupid thing eats batteries...because I always forget to turn it off...


Oh and for those of you that have been wondering...yes Herman the Spider is still with us...

Spidere Update

Yeah...it's still there

Itsy Bitsy Spider

There is a dead spider on my laptop...
I came home from the hockey game and there it was lying belly up right next to the screen. So I poked it. And it's legs moved, so I thought it was alive, but then it turned out that the legs moved because I poked it...
For a little while I thought maybe it was a spider skin. I have a tarantula and once or twice a year she moults, and I can't tell the difference between her and her skin until she moves.
I haven't moved it yet. I was thinking of keeping it in a tiny little jar and collecting other dead spiders and putting them on my apothecary desk with a label that says "Spideres"
Actually, it will probably stay there until I sneeze...