This first part of this post is a pissed off rant. If you are not interested in reading about it, please skip down to the astericks.

Okay, so I have this 6 month old Epson all in one, that I bought when my old printer’s ink valves jammed up. It’s a good machine. Convenient, if you will. Then about 3 weeks ago, it started to have issues. The paper was feeding at an angle, and stuff started jamming constantly, and the copy function wouldn’t print at all. Now I need my printer, I have yarn labels to print, and invoices, not to mention shipping labels. Oh, how I love to print my shipping labels! So I call my friendly epson tech people, they really do a good job, and after some chatter, the dude said it’s still under warrenty, (yay!) and they’ll ship out a replacement, and then I send them the defective printer. This probably would have gone perfectly smoothly, had I not gone to Michigan, and had James not been at work all day everyday. Long story short, I got my new printer today, and the USB port doesn’t work (*&$%^%^$@#$!^&!&&). *Sigh* No working USB port=No working printer.

So now I’m waiting for the replacement for the replacement. Great. So today I’m handwriting address labels, and tomorrow, I’ll be spending some time at the post office, shipping lots of fibery packages off to everyone who purchased yarn yesterday. (Thank You!)
I just got back from the copy place down the street (support your local businesses) , where I ran off some labels. It’s just SOOOOOO inconvenient. I would run out and by a cheapy number, but why? I’m trying to save money. The one good thing about all this? When it’s all done I’ll have two sets of free ink cartridges. That’s like, a savings of $100. Double Yay.
End of rant.

* * * * *

On to Michigan!! I had a great time. Sometimes when I go visit the fam, I can’t wait to get out of there and come home. This was not one of those times. I didn’t want to leave. In the summer, my parents house is better than any resort, or vacation place I have ever stayed. Lush, and green, beautiful house, big pool, decent, if humid weather. I love it. I’ll be back in three weeks for the Michigan Fiber Festival (yay!) In Allegan County, Michigan. This will be my 3rd year. It’s small, but fabulous. I ended up coming back to p’burgh late on Friday. I didn’t want to miss my weaving class, which is slowly getting very tedious. I’m tired of the sampler thing, and would rather work on an actual project.
But anyways, Michigan. My Mum’s birthday was on Thursday, she turned an undisclosed number of years young. We celebrated on Monday and Tuesday. She and my dad, and another couple flew down to St. Thomas thursday morning (Lucky Dogs), for a long weekend. They have a time share at The Ritz, and since The Ritz just finished a new section of condos, they offered my parents a 4 day 5 night stay, no charge, if they went before a certain date, and knew anyone who might also be interested in buying. They did. So they went, and had a great time, and are flying back today.
So I hung around Michigan with my brother and sister, and the dogs. I love the dogs. I believe you all know my wonder nephew, Louie V.

He’s a sweetheart, all 20 lbs of him. Then there’s my parents pooch, Vinny. I don’t think I’ve introduced him yet. He’s my dog-brother, which makes him Louie’s Uncle. Vinny is 11, and crotchety, but still has all his puppy spunkiness. He was pissed off for a long time when my sister brought Louie home, I swear it took him a good 8 months before he even started to accept Louie.
In his older age, he no longer wants his photos taken. He used to let me take all kinds of Photos, but lately, as soon as he realizes what you’re up to, he runs the other way, I’m not even kidding, and goes under my parents bed. So I have to be quick about it. He’s weird like that, but still cool. He’s about half Louie’s size, maybe smaller.

On Thursday night, even though she wasn’t there, we all went out and celebrated my moms birthday. At Mortons. Of Chicago. My dad needs to buy stock in Mortons they’re there so often, especially my sister, who walks around like she owns the place. My Dad is hugely into fine wine, so Mortons is his home away from home. In fact, my mom was telling me, some owner of some resturant everyone in St. Thomas recommends almost started a fight with him, cause my Dad was trying to explain that even though his wines were very good vintages they were all now crap because of improper storage. Seriously. His place is only open 3 days a week, and all his wines are stored out in the open, and he turns the air conditioning OFF 4 days a week. So all his wines, which should be stored at 55 Degrees F, are all baking at 90 degrees and up. Hello? This dude is dumb. Even I, who can’t begin to afford fine wines like these, know how ridicules that is, not to mention wrong.
I digress. Mortons was fun. My brother’s new girlfriend came with us, and the dogs had some good leftovers. Eveytime we come home with a silver Mortons bag Vinny does flips and cartwheels, I swear. He loves the steak. This is one of the best things ever-

The Mortons Steak Bible. They put all of there recipes in here. Steaks, sauces, desserts, if it’s on the menu, it’s recipe is here. I’m thrilled, their Blue Cheese dressing is to die for. Really, I can’t believe they give their secrets all away in this book.

And finally, some fiberness. This is a knitblog after all. Another reason I look forward to Michigan, is the no less than 8 yarn shops within a 40 minute drive of my parents house. Dude. I frequent 6 of them. I don’t always get to all of them, but I do try. I hit 3 this time, and bought this from one-

Lana Grossa Meilenweit Colortweed. MMMM. I saw this the last time I was up there, in May, and kept thinging about it. So while I was waiting for my car to get it’s oil changed, I walked over and bought some. I was going to buy one (that whole saving money thing) then couldn’t decide, so I was going to get two, then I ended up getting three. I was on vacation, after all! So these get added to the already over flowing bin of sock yarn I own. Yes, I have a problem. Yes, I’m okay with that.

SSS has been running rampant over here. I started a new jaywalker while in Michigan, completely ignoring that I am halfway through the 2nd of another pair of Jaywalkers, and the one more Sweetwater sock I have to knit, AND the two socks on the one magic loop I started out of my rock bottom colorway, that are almost to the heel. Hee. I decided to just go with it. I mean, I’m having fun knitting socks I won’t wear for a few more months yet, so what the hell. Okay, I think I’m all blogged out. This post was brought to you by the caffeine in my Diet Dr. Pepper. Did I mention I’m mostly off caffeine? Yup. It was hard, but I did it. That whole printer ordeal drove me to it. I’m not much for the soda, either, but once in awhile, a Dr. Pepper tastes damn good. Okay, now I’m done……

Filed by Julia at 6:33 pm under Family,Knitting,Michigan
16 Comments

I swear I have interesting fibery posts. I just haven’t written them yet. I have a great dye post, and another weaving update. I’m going to Michigan on Monday, so I’ll post from there.

Filed by Julia at 11:40 pm under General
6 Comments

TheYards live at Club Cafe´ Tuesday night. I’ve been shooting these guys since day one. Tonight they play Club Midway, NYC. My boyfriend also runs sound for them. They’re cool.

I love love love fiber, and the whole world of it, but I was born for Live Photography. I quit trying to make a living at it cause to many people in that industry are deusch bags, and I don’t need that around me. So now it’s way much fun. Maybe someday I’ll get back to it. I gots time.

Filed by Julia at 11:10 pm under Electric Mayhem
5 Comments

Finally.

Filed by Julia at 10:26 pm under Weaving!?!
15 Comments

My Weaving Class resumed after the fourth, and I made a lot of progress, but no weaving til next Saturday. Before you start weaving the weft, you have to warp the loom. This took me the better part of 3 hours to do, and I’m not quite there yet. I think this is normal.

First, all my ends get threaded through a reed. I’m working at 10 epi, for a piece 12 in, plus 1 in to allow for drawing in, I have 13 in. So I have 130 ends. That is alot of ends.

Then you take all those ends and thread them through the heddles. I’m working on a four harness loom, so I have four rows of heddles. The idea is to thread them in a sequence, depending on your pattern. We’re just doing basics here, so my sequence is 1,2,3,4. This repeats until I’ve threaded all my ends.

I think I have to do a few more things, then I can start actual weaving.

Filed by Julia at 10:25 pm under Weaving!?!
9 Comments

Not being a practicing photographer anymore, and not having a “real” studio space, that big white living room wall of mine sure does come in handy. This is my very good buddy, JT. He’s known as Ford Thurston these days, you can listen to his music, here, at his myspace page. He’s an amazing blues guitarist gone country, but it’s working for him. At least 3 of the local stations are giving him regular airplay. These photos are for his upcoming release.

So country it hurts.

The “Ryan Adams”

He’s been all kinds of musician, but for whatever reason, he hit the right market with country. Crazy. I’m not a country fan myself, but this is the best sounding music he’s done.
It works. Crazy.

I’ve begun seaming on my feather and fan shrug, I’m hoping to finish it up tonight. Then I can have a guilt free start on my next sweater project. Yay!

Filed by Julia at 11:31 pm under Electric Mayhem
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People! Somebody pour me a frozen blended beverage and put an umbrella in it! I am stranded on feather and fan island! If you thought sleeve island was bad, I’ll trade you. I’m knitting a cute little shrug number, this one, from Knitpicks. Go get it! It’s a free download. I am this close, to being done. A few more rows of the ol’ f & f, and I can bind off the sash. This has been a very fun knit. This is the one I’m knitting out of Noro Lily.

Here’s the deal with this sash thing, you knit it in 2 pieces, to be joined at the back, so the feather and fan runs in the same direction. Someone was thinking over there. That’s 2 pieces, 26 inches long each. That’s alot of feather and fan. So I’m knitting the 2 pieces at the same time, like you would 2 sleeves. It’s chugging along, but I’m experiancing that phenomena, you know, knit a million rows, gain a quarter inch? Yup. Can’t. seem. to get. there.

I am loving knitting with the Lily. 50 silk, 50 cotton, drapes like a dream. Perfect to show off the feather and fan. Careful, though, I blocked the other pieces, and the water was very bright pink. Lots of dye runoff. I’ve never dyed a plant fiber/protein fiber blend myself, but I’m guessing whatever dye they used was more suited for one, than the other.

Love this stuff!

…and The Shop has been restocked!

Filed by Julia at 12:56 am under Knitting
10 Comments

I’ve been wanting to play with dyeing silk, but I didn’t want to get stuck with a pound of the stuff if I didn’t like it. So the other day, while at the LYS I work one day a week at, I picked up a skein of Debbie Bliss Pure Silk. The shop just got it in, who knows how long ago we ordered it. Those of you familiar with KFI’s crap-tastic service will understand. But I digress.

Anyways, I really like the sheen on this stuff, I have my reservations about the wearability. It really has that silky feeling. This is before-

If experiance has taught my anything, it’s not to dye the whole thing at once. I wound off two yard sections to dye, so I could see how the fiber takes the dye, and the answer is, beautifully.

The purple one I immersion dyed, meaing I put the yarn in a glass cup and added dye, and zapped it in the microwave till most of the color was sucked up. The other 3 I painted, wrapped in plastic, then zapped in the microwave. I like both results, though for a darker color, immersion is the way I would go. It takes the dye like a superwash wool does, very quickly.

Now that I know how this stuff works, I wound off a 20 yard section, so I could dye it, and knit a little swatch-

So nice to knit with, on US 6 addi’s. I could see it possibly fuzzing with wear, I’ve never used silk before. So tell me, what to knit with it? What would you knit with it, I mean, a shawl? A shell? The debbie bliss pure silk book has some lovely cabled numbers, but I’m a wool girl, so that’s pretty much my first choice in everything.

Obviously I have a sock yarn fetish. I have more sock yarn than I will ever use, and I keep adding more. Someday I’ll flash that stash. I love a good wool, hand me wool tweed and I’ll be your best friend. Right know I’m working with Noro Lily, a 50/50 blend of cotton and silk, and I love it. Such a nice hand, and it blocks like a dream. I’m already planning my second project using it. Yum.

When I changed the blog around, i finally figured out how to have wordpress send my comments to my email, so I could reply to them. Now hotmail isn’t sending them to my inbox, or letting me recieve them at all. Stupid hotmail. I know it’s not wordpress, because I used a differant email, and they went through just fine. gah.

ETA: It’s working again! All my missing emails just popped up. yay!

Oh, and I’ll have a shop update again on Monday!

Filed by Julia at 5:36 pm under Dyeing
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