Sarah Jane Humke

I will think of Blue Faced Leicester when I see kilos

Sarah Jane Humke

November 13, 2008

So, while I was in the UK the last time I bought a bag of oatmeal colored Blue Faced Leicester roving. I bought a half a kilo of it, thinking that was the closest that I could easily get to them selling me a pound of the stuff. Half a kilo is about 1.1 pounds. So, this has been what I have been spinning for the last, well, forever. Spinning has been a little neglected of late due to the whole Christmas-is-hurtling-through-the-calendar-faster-than-Santa-on-his-supersonic-sleigh thing as well as the whole moving-to-another-country-lots-of-paperwork thing and the usual I-have-2-jobs-and-go-to-school thing. The wheel actually had dust on it. Anyway, last night I was removing the roving from Milo’s mouth for the umpteenth time (she thinks it’s tasty, until, that is, she can’t get it out of her mouth because it is stuck in her teeth) and I decided to just go and spin the rest of it. There wasn’t really that much left and it took me a few hours, but the never ending bag of Blue Faced Leicester has finally ended! I made up 2 pretty good sized skeins of the stuff with what was left. Here is the one that I soaked and hung last night:

Here is the one that I finished plying this morning, still on the niddy noddy:

I am so glad that the never ending bag of wool is done. If for nothing else, I don’t have to worry about Milo walking around with a pseudo beard of wool hanging out of her mouth. It freaks me out!

Now, I just need to wash all the fleeces that I got at Rhinebeck. That, however, is an adventure for another day……

I knew there was a reason I was nervous….

Sarah Jane Humke

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November 13, 2008

I have had these two pieces of a pillow cover done for a while, well since January to be exact. All I needed to do was to felt them and sew them together. Yet, I waited. Felting has always made me nervous, and now I find, for good reason. Today I threw these two pieces into the washing machine and followed the instructions on the pattern TO THE LETTER! Two tablespoons of baking soda….check. 15 minutes of hot water agitation…..check. Pair of jeans added to the washer to cause more agitation…..check.

What came out was SEVERAL inches too short in both directions! WTF!?!?!?! I tried to stretch them out to the appropriate sizes. This was rather a comedic effort. I tried pinning them in place. They just kept saying back to me, “Baby, you FELTED us. We just ain’t got no more stretch TO us anymore!”.

This is what they look like now. I didn’t think to take a before picture because I was FOLLOWING THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR ONCE!!!! It should turn out right when you follow the instructions, right?

You can see in this photo that the length of the largest piece AFTER STRETCHING is 14″. It should be 18.5″.

Hmmmmm… Pillow covering is sort of like a purse right? Maybe I could just add straps to it…..

Sigh…. This is why I don’t like following directions.

Considered Insanity

Sarah Jane Humke

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November 10, 2008

I am considering doing something totally insane.

I mean REALLY crazy.

Like lock you up in a padded room nuts. Only in my case, it would be padded with yarn….

I am considering cataloging my entire stash.

I have done something like this before. I cataloged my entire book collection, all 3087 (at last count) of them. So it isn’t without precedence. But cataloging my yarn would be, in many ways, much, much more difficult. For starters, a lot of it is label-less. A lot of it is old (think 1950’s and 1960’s). I would need a fair amount of space to do it for photography reasons.

However, I do have a couple of fairly compelling reasons to want to do this.

1.) I am moving. There is a (very, very small) risk that the container could go overboard or something similarly bad could happen to it. I want a list of my yarns for insurance reasons. (Stop laughing, have you seen what vintage Caron Dazzle Aire is going for these days?)

2.) I could totally rock Ravelry.

3.) I like making inventory lists.

This is a really, really big undertaking. I have a (very full) room devoted to my stash. It is literally to the ceiling with large plastic containers full of yarn. Large plastic containers. The kind you could put a folded-up body in. BIG. I don’t know. I have to think about this. But I would like to do it before I start packing as we are planning on using yarn as a packing material for breakables. In plastic bags of course. Wouldn’t want it to get dirty you know.

What do you think?

Just another day

Sarah Jane Humke

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November 9, 2008

Today was one of those weekend days that seems to go on forever. The weekends are the hardest for me to deal with Tech Support being gone. He is usually gone during the week normally. But then I would have him home all weekend making me tasty things to eat and cuddling. Oh, and mowing the lawn and scooping the cat litter. So him being gone over the weekends seems to make them last forever for some reason. Anyway, today I decided to treat myself a little bit. I had some errands to run and one of them took me near the Florida Mall. Now, I am not a big mall person. In fact I typically avoid them like the plague. However, the Florida Mall contains the Nordstrom’s, which contains the Bistro Cafe. Believe it or not, but they make the best french fries that I have ever tasted. They also make an excellent creme brulee. It seems odd to find such good food in a department store, but there it is. If you have one near you I would highly suggest checking it out. Trust me on this one, ok?

I also bought 2 tubs of World Market fortune cookies. If you like fortune cookies, then these are the best around and I would highly suggest that you not get a tub of them. You will eat them all and be feverishly addicted from that point on. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

I gave a bunch of violets away at the Herb Festival on Saturday. Most went to the folks that were working there with Traci, but some went to the Lake County Extension folks and some to the ladies that I saw from the Lady Lake Garden Club. (If you pay for 2 years worth of tuition, you get a free violet and lots of smiles!) I still have a small ton of them to find homes for so I will probably take some to crochet group Thursday night.

Now, I am going to veg and watch The Thorn Birds on DVD. What a fantastic story and a great movie.

The burrito is in the mail. Really! Would I lie to you?

Sarah Jane Humke

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November 7, 2008

Today I mailed off the burrito. I wanted to get it off as quickly as possible since it is already getting pretty cold up in the great white North.

Here is a picture that I took of the totally completed burrito.

Here is another picture with a corner folded over to kind of get an idea of the whole thing.

I also finished a scrapghan small child’s blanket. I just started working on it one night because I didn’t want to start another big project. It will go to someone who I really hope doesn’t read this blog. Actually, his daughter. Anyway, it took a few weeks.

I put one of my shoes in the picture to give you an idea of size. They are size 39 (or around a 9 American sizing). I tried to make it a little brighter and colorful than the typical scrapghan I make.

Last night was my Happy Hookers night. I once again forgot to take pictures of the fun. Really, it is just a bunch of us sitting around hooking which is not the most compelling photographic event. Well, hooking and laughing, a lot. We are a pretty rowdy bunch and I am always amazed at how really quiet the rest of the bakery usually is.

Tomorrow is the Seminole Springs Herb Festival. I have helped-out with it for several years now and have been joined by the hubby whenever he is around for it. Alas, he will not be around for this one. He is in London recovering from a rather large party held at his favorite bar, Green and Red.

The Burrito is Nearly Done

Sarah Jane Humke

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November 5, 2008

I have nearly finished the baby burrito. Today I bit the bullet and decided to get out the sewing machine and sew in the lining. Yesterday I went to Jo-Ann’s and found the perfect flannel to match this. It has puppies on it in sort of a patchwork look with the same green and brown as the burrito.

Here is the outside of the burrito taken a couple of days ago.

This is the inside of it, without the pouch/pocket folded up.

And this is roughly what it will look like when it is all done and I have crocheted the pouch/pocket sides up.

You can see that I sewed in a bunch of ribbon “tags”. I found out that babies like to, well, fondle tags. So, I gave him to grab on to.

I don’t think that I broke the machine. It seems to be still working ok. I may even try this sewing thing again. Especially given how cheap the fabric was! It was $2.99 a yard! Totally worth it I think. I can run it now and I ordered a fabric stripper from Hershner’s so I will be making braided rag rugs for the new house in the UK very soon from all of the old clothes that I have stored in the storage unit for this purpose. Should be interesting:-)

I will send off the burrito after I take it in to crochet group tomorrow night.

’nuff said!

Sarah Jane Humke

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November 4, 2008

Baby burritos anybody?

Sarah Jane Humke

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November 3, 2008

Today was busy and expensive. I booked the shipping container that will be taking all of our worldly belongings to the UK. That was a $750 deposit. I paid the tag for the car…$55. I paid the fees for my gym membership $40 (they waived the late fees since I told them about the card cancellation while in London). I sent a check off to get a CITES permit for the birds to go to the UK $50. We booked the tickets for Christmas in Iowa, about $400. It was an expensive day. Luckily, the stuff to do with the move we won’t have to pay for in the long run.

I know that this sounds funny, but it seems really real that the move is going to actually happen now. I’ve never really done anything like this before so it seems very unreal.

In fiber news, I finished the main crocheting on the baby burrito. It is sort of a blanket with a pouch/pocket at one end for MH’s feet. He is rather large to go into the traditional clothing for a baby his age but a little too young to go into the clothing that is for his size. Anyway, I am making this and (trying) to match it to the carseat/stroller thingy that Sarah and Dan have. I think that I am going to try and sew a lining into it before crocheting up the sides of the pocket/pouch. I will need to go to Jo-Ann’s for some fabric for it and then to the liquor store for something to help me get over the apprehension that I have for sewing machines. I have broken 2 of them so far in my life. One was my mother’s (I’m reasonably sure that she was not too broken up about it) and the other was one of the schools home ec classroom machines. I suppose that I can run a damn computer now, I should be able to run a sewing machine. We’ll see. Don’t have the fabric yet. Watch, I was able to find the yarns too easily thus the gods will punish me by making a decent fabric unavailable. Doh.

I will take a picture of it tomorrow. It’s been a busy day…..

I so don’t have my shit together

Sarah Jane Humke

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November 1, 2008

Trust me on this one. It has been weeks of forgetting things, taking 20 minutes to get out of the house because I keep finding that I have gotten to the car without the keys/purse/thing that I need/pants (seriously, pants, don’t ask).

I’m not quite sure what is going on here. I am usually the one with the pile of stuff by the front door that needs to go to the car next. Now it’s a pile of stuff that never got put away after getting out of the car.

If I’m not careful, I’m gonna lose a cat for sure….

(P.S. The yarn dude is a piece of art from, and I am quoting Tech Support, “One of the Saatchi Galleries that I went to…” No more info than that, sorry.)

Who needs therapy when you have hookers?

Sarah Jane Humke

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October 30, 2008

I keep not wanting to go to crochet group and then go knowing that I would regret not going if I didn’t. Seriously, they are my prozac. I feel depression trying to edge in on me and I know that I need “my people” now more than usual, but it also makes me just want to curl-up in bed with the pets. I have very little structure in my life of late and I know that I need that. My Thursday night group has been the most structured thing around for a while now. Who needs therapy when you have hookers? They say that laughing is a natural way to avoid going on happy drugs and I totally agree. If more people had a once a week laugh fest there would be some drug executives saying things like, “we don’t need to develop another depression medication, let’s cure cancer/lupus/MS! I think that, in many ways, depression is a disease that has flourished in this country because we have all become so disconnected from other people. The years that were the worst for me were the ones that I would go to work, go to the grocery store and then go home. I could go for days without having an interaction with another person other than those at work. Humans are social animals which is also the reason that I think that the internet is so popular, it is a close substitute for actually being around other people.

This was all a very long winded way of saying that I had a lot of fun as usual.

I dropped the hubby off at the airport right before group. That is never fun and was worse than usual for some reason today. He is on his way to Italy for a truffle festival with some friends of his, one of which is a native Italian. It is so hard to be him right now….

This morning, while he was working from home, I cuddled-up to him and promptly fell asleep. He took pictures…

In this picture, leg of hubby (in plaid), Jiji and Sarah (Both asleep)

Oh my God we are so CUTE!

They were taken with a camera phone, but turned out pretty well nevertheless. We were like that for about an hour or so. His leg was COMPLETELY asleep by the time that we awoke. Still, he wasn’t complaining….

He also sent me a picture of, what looks like some crazy yarn sculpture. He was in new airport “lounges” so who knows where he saw this. I will update if I find out anything more about it (he is somewhere over the Atlantic as I write this so I can’t just ring him up and ask).

Self-striping yarn dude.

And, last but not least, I bought a four gallon Ball jar tonight. Seriously. Four gallons! It’s fucking huge! It is about 20 inches tall. I have no idea what I will put in it but it is seriously cool. Maybe I will put yarn? Anyway, had to share….