I finished spinning the Cranberry merino. I plied the last 2 oz I spun first. I have to brag a bit, my yarn is beautiful!

After I finished plying the small bobbin of Cranberry, did I start on the big second bobbin? Um, no. I started spinning the light pink merino/tencel blend (from now on to be known as “cotton candy” because it looks like cotton candy). Once I start plying, that’s all I can do on my wheel until I’m finished plying. I wanted to spin for half an hour and didn’t want to do any plying. So what was a girl to do, but to start something much more interesting. I’ll post a photo after I get a bit more spun on the bobbin. Once again another challenging fiber at first. After about 15 minutes I seemed to get the hang of spinning with the merino and tencel. It’s quite slippery and took a lot of concentration for the half an hour. I’m sure the slipperiness of it is because it’s a superwash fiber. Last night, I sat down to spin for another half hour and seem to be getting the hang of spinning the “cotton candy.” It’s spinning up very finely, it also helps that I have the ratio set even higher than I did for the cranberry merino.

Last night, I thought I would try to knit a few stitches. I could knit about 4 stitches and that was all that I could do. My index finger is still very sensitive. The way I grasp my yarn pulls the yarn across the nasty blood blister I have on my finger. Fortunately, my middle finger is healing well and the nasty scab has fallen off. The funny thing is I’m completely fine with not being able to knit because I can spin.

I’ve been shopping for the girl that I’m a secret pal for/to. We’re so different but it’s been fun to try to figure out what she would like. I’m going to send my package off this weekend. My second package is almost together it needs a few finishing touches, but I hope to get it off within the next several weeks.

And because I just had to participate, I’m now a statistic in a good way. :)

In 1972 on June 26, there was a little boy born, his parents named him Bryan. He must have been a very sweet little boy because he grew up to be a very sweet guy. In Mundelein, Illinois he used to walk to the library. Back then, I’m sure he didn’t realize then that after graduate school, he would work at the same library he loved as a child.

On August 17, 2002, I received an email from this boy named Bryan. He had been searching for a band, Juned, on the web and came across my music page. I figured it was just someone sending me a nice email. When I replied to the email, I thought it would be nice to hear from Bryan again but surely didn’t expect it to turn into anything. We exchanged phone numbers after several days of exchanging email.

On a very warm August day, I met Bryan at Chowpatti for “a dinner date that wasn’t really a date” (I didn’t want to jinx anything). We had a really great time talking and enjoying our dinner. About 9:15pm, the owner of the restaurant let us know that they were closed, so we had to leave. I don’t think I’d ever had a date where I lost track of time so easily. Maybe because I wasn’t calling it a “date” that made it go well. After the “date,” I called up my friend, Susan, and told her about the great time I’d had.

Several days later, we went on our second date to the Art Institute in Chicago. That day, I realized how much I really liked Bryan. From that day on, I think we both decided that we liked each other and that we were officially “dating.”

On Valentine’s Day, 2003, he completely surprised me and proposed. We were married a year and a half later on September 18, 2004.

Each day with Bryan is wonderful. He can make me smile on the worst days. Everyone says that there is a special connection when you get married and it’s so true. He’s my “Dearest.” We love the same music (mostly), the same films (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is our favorite) and have grown to love the same foods (except olives, Bryan can’t stand them). I knew Bryan was the right one for me, when my grandfather commented that we were perfect for each other. It’s quite a compliment from anyone, but especially from my grandfather.

Yesterday, we celebrated Bryan’s birthday. My sister came out to the suburbs. We went to see Me And You And Everyone We Know, which was quite good. Then we went to Pronto Roma for dinner.

I worked late last night and when I got home I wanted dinner with my husband (I love that we eat breakfast and dinner together 99% of the time) and a date with my wheel to spin, spin, spin.

I arrived home and received a kiss from my husband. We sat down and had a nice dinner together. I love that I married a man who likes to cook. It makes my life so much easier and he makes great stuff, even if it is as quick and easy as hummus wraps.

After dinner, I decided I was going to spin the Cranberry merino to finish up the bobbin. I spun for two hours. It was so wonderful to just sit and spin. I’ve become quite comfortable with the merino and it’s spinning up so easily now. With a full bobbin, I figured I was getting close to finishing up with the merino, then I weighed the remaining fiber and found out I still have over 2 ounces left. Yay! It’s such a delight to spin with that I know it’s fiber that I’ll want to purchase again, when I run out of all of the other fiber I’ve recently purchased.

Wednesday, while I was spinning, we watched a movie that Bryan brought home from the library called Defending Your Life with Albert Brooks and Meryl Streep. We didn’t finish it because we had to keep to our 10:30pm bed time. We’ll finish it up this weekend.

I went to the doctor yesterday for my fingers. The one that was cut looks better, part of the scab has fallen off with lovely new baby skin underneath. My index finger (my knitting finger) needs to be x-rayed to make sure it isn’t fractured. It’s still sore, so it may be a while before I’m back in full knitting mode. What’s funny is, in a way, that’s fine with me because that just means more time for spinning. :)

Sunday is my dear husband’s birthday, so we’ll be celebrating with a movie and dinner. He really wants to see Me and You and Everyone We Know, which sounds really good. My sister is coming out to the suburbs on Sunday to celebrate with us.

This will be another busy weekend of fun, as usual. Hopefully, I’ll have some time to get some spinning in.

I’m still in recovery mode. My fingers are taking a while to heal. I’m going to the doctor on Thursday to have them looked at. I think part of my problem is that I never took the bandage off of the cut and it hasn’t had any air to help it heal.

On Friday, I was feeling a bit frustrated with my fingers and I had to do something to make myself feel better. I was determined to figure out how to spin with my ring finger and pinkie on my left hand. Well, I was successful and have been spinning a lot in the last several days. I’m thrilled that I am able to do something fiber-related again. I was about to go nuts with “nothing” to do. Now I have a nearly full bobbin of the Cranberry Merino I started spinning at the end of May.

This weekend was another weekend with a long to-do list. Amazingly, all but two things got done. A first for us. In the continuation of cleaning out the closets, I finally have donated the formals that I’ve been holding on to for a long time. One of them being a bridesmaid dress for a bridesmaid that wasn’t in my wedding after her dress had been picked up. I tried to sell it on eBay to no avail and was thrilled when I found out about The Glass Slipper Project in Chicago. They take formals donated by people and give them to disadvantaged girls for prom. Saturday, I also got my new glasses. I normally don’t wear glasses a lot but I needed to get a new pair for those times when I’m not wearing my contacts. I really like my new glasses.

Saturday night, B and I went to see Eisley at the Double Door in Chicago. It was a really good show, I had a lot of fun. It wasn’t so fun getting home at 2:30am. One of the problems living an hour out of the city.

This past weekend, Toni at The Fold had a big Summer Solstice sale. So Sunday Dawn & I headed out to The Fold. All “soft” stuff was 20% off. I stocked up on fiber to last me a while and bought a bag for my wheel.
Here is my recent stash enhancement from Sunday.

This is amazing in person, I had to have it. The photo doesn’t do it justice – the green and pink together is absolutely wonderful.
70% Merino / 30%Tussah silk in “Green” (8 oz)

70% Merino/30% Tencel to be plied with the light pink

70% Merino/30% Tencel to be plied with the bright pink

Special #3 – 80% Merino/20% Kid Mohair

After our shopping extravaganza, Dawn and I set up our wheels on the deck behind the store and spun for over an hour. It was a beautiful day outside. Because we were there so long, Toni gave us some free fiber. She said she didn’t have enough left in the bag to sell and she let us split it up. We both ended up with about 2.5 ounces each. It’s beautiful!

70% Merino/30% Silk in “Concord”

In other life news, library volunteering has been going well, I ended up volunteering twice last week since I had nothing to do at home with mashed fingers. I did a lot of shelving, which is actually very fun. It’s very calming to be with just the books and straightening the shelves.

Man, I thought after over a week of high 80s and low 90s (32degrees C) that we’d get a break from this heat. The weather people have said that a warm early June in Chicago means a warm summer. So it may be a scorcher this summer. I like summer just fine with the sunny days and attitude that everyone seems to have but I would like it to never get above 81 degrees. Last night, we had a bit of a break but the heat is back again today.

Thursday evening, Bryan and I went to see Ivy at the Double Door in Chicago. It was a good show. It was so hot that at one point I wasn’t sure if we could stand it much longer. Hopefully, the club will be a bit more comfortable when we go see Eisley this coming Saturday.

This weekend was one of those weekends where I don’t feel like I accomplished a lot but I know I did from looking at the to-do list. I went to the dentist, picked out new eyeglasses, bought cat food on Saturday. Sunday, we sold a bunch of cds at a local record store. I think not knitting makes me feel like I haven’t done much because I don’t have any concrete evidence of what I did over the weekend. My fingers are still a bit of a mess. My index finger is still very sore and I have a lovely tiny bruise showing at the base of my fingernail. My middle finger is disgusting. I’m sure there is new skin growing where I cut my finger but I can’t really see progress.

Thank you all for your kind comments about my mishap. It made not being able to knit a bit easier. You’d think I would be using this time to get some reading done.

I’m volunteering at the library this evening, so that gives me something to do. I can, at least, shelve books with my bum fingers. And certainly call people regarding their reserve items.

Unfortunately, since my last post no knitting or spinning has been done. Saturday evening, it was getting quite warm in our apartment and Bryan and I decided we should turn the air conditioner on and close the windows. We had been trying to figure out something on the new Mac Mini in the office, so I went into the living room to close the massive sliding glass door. Let’s just say, closing the door did not go as smoothly as planned. The door stuck so I had to put my hand against the edge of the door to give myself some leverage to pull it closed. I knew as soon as I heard the “thunk” that something wasn’t right with the door. A split second later, I realized exactly what was wrong. I had slammed the door on my index and middle fingers on my left hand. A few words never to be repeated were said and I ran through the apartment to the bathroom to wash the blood off of my finger. It was then that I realized what the door had done to my fingers. The index finger was just pinched and where a few little spots that look like pin pricks were bleeding. I can’t say that the middle finger was left in better shape. I ended up with a huge piece of skin getting sliced and it was bleeding like crazy. I didn’t lose any part of my finger just a major gash on the side of my finger next to the fingernail.

The last two days have been interesting at work and trying to type. I have to use my ring and pinky fingers to type with my left hand. I don’t know how many times I’ve had to retype my name in the last two days. ercia is usually how it comes out. It’s taken me a while to type this with all of the typos, so I’ll leave this for today. My posts this week may be a bit less than usual until my fingers are healed.

Yesterday definitely felt like a Friday. Everyone at work seemed to be in that summer Friday mood. I don’t know how to describe it but I’m sure you know what I mean.

I just finished a little project for the girl I’m spoiling for SP5. I don’t want to say any more because I want to remain as secret as possible. I’ll post a photo of it in September. The other morning, I had a dream that the girl I’m a secret pal for sent me an email that said, “I know who you are and I’m not happy that you ruined the surprise.” What a weird dream to have.

Today has been a very lazy Saturday. Bryan is working and I thought I would sleep in a little bit. I was awake right after he left for work and read for a half hour, but then thought, I’ll just lay here for a few minutes before I get up. I didn’t think I would sleep until 11am, which means I slept another two and a half hours.

Last night, I finished the first sock of the BV socks for Bryan (BV are his initials).
I started decreasing the toe on Thursday at lunch and then finished it last night. Since I had such great luck with Lucy Neatby’s technique for grafting on “A Good Bias” shrug. I thought I would try the toe chimney technique that I’ve heard about. It works great, too. I hate losing track of where I am when I’m doing kitchener stitch but with this technique I don’t have to worry about losing track because I’m just following the stitches that are already there. And it seems to go so much quicker than kitchener stitch. I started on the second sock this afternoon.

This afternoon, I plan to continue spinning the cranberry merino that I started spinning on Tuesday. (Notice the kitty toy mouse at the top. The mice are all over our house.)

I know everyone has already done this once, except me, of course. So I figured I’d finally get around to posting it.

Bold the states you’ve been to, underline the states you’ve lived in and italicize the state you’re in now…

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C. /

Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.