Thanksgiving

I am thankful for:
1) My family. Not everyone is so lucky to have a immediate family as supportive as mine. My parents and brother are supportive of everything I do, even if they don't agree with it.
2) My friends, most of whom are like family. Even if they are busy and hard to get a hold of, I know my leetle friendies have my back. And even if we spend a year apart, when we are together things pick-up like we just saw each other yesterday. Go friends!!
3) My boyfriend. Even if he is a little poo sometimes and even if we break up tomorrow, he has made the last two and a half years (most of which were kind of crappy) fly by and has made me the happiest I've ever been in my life. I hope that someday he realizes how amazing he is and why I can't help but be smitten.
4) My job(s). One job is finally paying enough to almost make it worth my time and is teaching me how to be patient and leave work at work. The other job is very flexible and full of good people to talk to and be friends with. Plus, work 1 is loaning me this computer!
5) My finances. Are finally working out so I'm not a nervous wreck constantly. I'm still living check to check, but I don't have a gap of three weeks when I'm overdrawn and starving.
6) Having awesome vets that helped me make the decision not to let my little dog suffer too long.
7) Eugene, Oregon. I have lived in other places, but I can definitely say that I grew up in Eugene.
8) My students. They remind me how important it is to stay human and be kind and supportive to each other.
9) My new apartment (or how Rachel got her sanity back). Even if it has only been about 55 degrees in there lately... it is my space and I love it and the cats love it.
10) Knitting. Because it gives me a creative outlet and keeps me calm(er).

still blocked but with spinning!! lots o' pics.

Wow, am I a horrible blogger or what?

So I'm still in a knitting funk. I have started the bobblicious twice but can't seem to make the super cheap circular needle I bought work. The cable has too much memory and just makes things a mess. But I have been doing a fair amount of spinning.

Here is my second yarn attempt. It is the colorway "Elgar Cello Concerto" from Strings and Yarn, spun thick and thin (unfortunately not on purpose) and plied with cotton sewing thread. I'm quite pleased with it. Plying with a thinner weight thread, however, made me horribly dizzy while it was happening. And I was kind of tired when I did it. I need to be reminded that spinning is not something to be done when tired and wanting to relax... At least not at this point in my spinning career.

I'm using it to make the Yarn Harlot's One Row Handspun Scarf. I'm so delighted with the self striping! I just hope the skein from the next bobbin stripes the same (ie. I hope I spun the colors up the same way!) I really like this colorway. I like the play of the scarlet with the coral and purple... gorgeous.

These are my friends from Great Falls, Montana. They were city shopping in Oregon and spent a few days with me checking out Eugene. We ate at The Keystone, Fisherman's Market, Ron's Island Grill, Ta Ra Rin, had some beer/played pool at The Jackalope and had treats at Sweet Life and coffee at The Wandering Goat. Great Falls doesn't have much in the way of cuisine, think Applebee's and semi-hip sandwich shops and wimpy coffee, so we loaded up on interesting things. We also visited 5th Street Market (they arrived on Saturday night, so no Saturday Market), Skinner's Butte, Goldbeach Oregon, Valley River Center, Mount Pisgah, Sunrise Asian Market, The University of Oregon and the Bookstore, and the Supreme Bean. I'm sure we went other places that I can't remember. It was fun. If only my friends lived here all the time.

Here is a gratuitous cat picture with an almost finished jaywalker. I'm very lucky to have cats that don't care about yarn or string. This cat will even sit in my lap while I knit, the yarn dragging over his little shiny body.


This is more fiber from Strings and Yarn in the colorway "Elves Dance-Jenkinson" It is very pretty when spun up (no pictures, alas) but with some long stretches of creamy, greeny, white. So I had to buy the second 4 ounces so that I could ply them together. Sigh. Life is rough.
My spinning is getting better, I just have to remember not to spin when I'm tired. Knitting while tired can work, but for spinning I need to be sprightly and ready to work.


Here is a picture of a mushroom we saw at Skinner's Butte.