I love my Grammy. Grammy is awesome. Those of you that have met her know how cool she is. Others of you might get an understanding of how neat Gram is by reading here. Especially if you’ve been reading a while, you have read some stories. I told some of you the reaction Gram had when I got my last tattoo (the one that honored my girls). Gram loved the tattoo and talked about how it was way better than getting jewelry to honor their births. I’d always have the tattoo and the story of it with me. The girls will always be able to see a reminder of them on me.

Sweet, I know. It was good to see that she “got it”. At 93, you never know what the reaction is especially since her generation of women didn’t do this. Her reaction almost made me cry it was so perfect.

Now, for those that don’t know, my whole family is getting honored on my arms. I figured with a response like that, Gram had to be next. She was the one that taught me to knit and crochet. Since Gram’s strokes, crocheting is the main thing she is able to do in her leisure time. And boy does she ever turn out afghans! I couldn’t think of any way better to honor Gram than to have her name on a crochet hook.

But there is more to it than that. This tattoo has been in the works for well over a month so I’d have all the pieces to take in to <a href=”http://www.sanctuarytattoo.com/jen/index.html”>Jennifer</a>. I asked Gram to make me the little granny square (Granny squares are my favorite but it’s also fitting since it’s a Granny square). She had given me the needles at one point last year. They are the needles that her dad made for her when she was a little girl.

The hook was the one thing I didn’t have until just this past Monday (One day before I was getting tatooed). I was sitting with Gram and noticed she was working with a different hook than normal. I always saw her working with this gold colored hook so the new green one really stood out. When I asked about the change, Gram’s reply was the hook had worn down too much and it was no longer good to crochet with. I asked to have it and my set was complete.

Yes, the ball of yarn changed color. I wanted to work in with the rest of the tattoos forthcoming so I changed it. I’m thrilled with it. I’ll have to take a picture once the redness and swelling go down, and have another person do it. The only one up right now is me myself and I so it’s not easy taking a photo of your inner right arm.

Red Bird is done. Red Bird is going to be set in a box and wait until Baby Boogie fits in it. That’s right, Baby Boogie. It was supposed to be a sweater for the big girl but she’s decided she doesn’t like it. I knew this would happen.

Many times I swear I won’t knit her a sweater and then she begs and I give in. This time I thought I was being smart. She picked out the patterns, she tried it on at every step. I stay up late to put it together. Instead of being excited to have something new to wear, I hear “I don’t like it”. The only reason I’m remotely ok with it is that the little one will be able to wear it. I tell you, it certainly makes me not want to knit her a sweater again. At least not until she begs and I feel bad because Baby Boogie has gotten more sweaters. Stay tuned for the next saga. I truly am a sap.

I also decided that I need to finally cast one for a sweater for my soon to be new Niece.

I’m using some Sirdar Denim Tweed I picked up at The Knitting Experience. The pattern is a lacy top down sweater from a book by Mary Rich Goodwin. I also picked up yarn to make Boogie Baby a sweater. I know she’ll wear it so I’ll cast on for hers soon.

I ripped a few things. I have a lot of WIP’s. If you’ve ever looked at my Ravelry notebook, you know. I’m ok with the amount, but there are times when I need to get real and realize why some are sitting there. Some I just don’t love anymore. There are just things that you get knitting and you don’t enjoy it. Why continue if you don’t enjoy or you know the end product won’t please you. My Mom’s sweater is one of those things.

I’m not a big fan of garter and this one uses garter bands. I can’t finish this sweater and be happy with it. I only had half a sleeve done, it’s been ripped.

I have a contest for you
Do you want to win some handspun? Handpsun Merino?

A couple of you thought I was going to cast on for the Mitones Ivenos by the end of the week. I think some of you thought I wouldn’t make it to the end of Wednesday without casting on. Did I? You have through Monday to give me your guess. Comment here letting me know if I cast on or will cast on: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, or Later.

All the people that guess the right answer will be have a chance to win the yarn. I’ll randomly select the winner and announce it Tuesday. That is of course unless only one person guesses right, then that will make it even easier. Guess away!

Today is Boogie Mom’s Birthday!
I’m posting late because I had to go give her the gift before I posted about it.

Branching out from Knitty
Spunky Eclectic Alpaca yarn - 1 skein
Colorway - Heathers - Teal

And instead of blathering on, I’m heading back to working on printing out shipping labels for club. There are now over 200 of you! Wow. I really need to get back to work.

Who cares about food when you have fiber?
I have no recipe for you. I kept meaning to make an enchilada recipe I have swirling around in my head but I kept getting busy. Getting ready for MA sheep and wool. Preparing to go to NH, mothers day and well, I was just plain consumed with the idea of the new wheel. I should probably warn you. I have 2 shows close together and with club shipping the week before one and close after the other, recipes and postings may be wonky or scarce. We’ll see what I can keep up with over the next couple of weeks. This all also means that there will be no new fiber in the online shop until June. I will however still do customs. I’ll be putting up a button on the wool page so you can order customs.

NHSW
When I said that you should say hi and lavish me with fiber gifts. I didn’t actually mean it. Ok, I’m not complaining, not in the slightest. Gina brought me fibers.

Aren’t they gorgeous? I’ve started to spin the pink on - Madra’s Cocktail. I don’t have much time for spinning right now but it is beautiful and about lace weight. So it will take me a while.

Yes, that is on the new wheel. There are sme thicker spots, this is the first fiber I put on the wheel so there were some adjustments before it was doing what I wanted, but not much.

And Heather gave me some awesome stitch markers:

Argggh matey. I’ll have my knitting scared into submission. I did have skully stitch markers but they all had bows on them. Now these are much tougher. grrrrr.

Speaking of skulls. I did get to stop and talk briefly with Tom of Golding Spindles. You know, the man that made Sparrow for me. I never stopped long at the Golding booth. I was never really interested before. I did stop to meet Tom and to thank him once again for a great spindle. The booth was unfortunately packed and I had a baby strapped to me. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to stop in and visit at the Fiber Frolic. I hear he has some new spindles that are “must see” spindles.

I think the girls had a good time too

They got to see animals and the abby got to ride all day. That’s the easy life. Even though she did scream and claw a few times. She wanted to walk but she wanted to walk all by herself. From 1 year old right on up to a teenager in a matter of months.

It was great to see so many of you. I couldn’t even name all of you an link to all. It was great seeing you again. This is the show that I get to see Miss Pippi but we didn’t get to spend much time together. I promise I’ll be up to VT this summer to see you lady.

Finally, the magnificent Juno had my wheel. Here he is sitting with Gus and Bettie.

The big guy is Husbeast sized. Jensen is taller than Bettie and Bettie is up about a foot off the ground. Jensen is older than I originally thought but still not a bad deal. I need to do something about the mother of all and this winter he will be totally refinished. I actually have plans to get my Dad to help me turn more bobbins and possibly a new flyer, I want bigger bobbins. They don’t need to be huge but I’d like them to be at least as big as the Ashford 2 ouncers. If you want to see the bobbin now - look up -the Madras is being spun on Jensen.

First I want to send out a big THANK YOU to Juno. She is the most marvelous person that is picking up my new wheel and bringing it to me. Go check her out, she’s doing some destashing, you might find something you need. And thank you to everyone else that commented. If the wheel could ride on spirit alone, I know it would have gotten here quickly without anyone needing to get it for me.
Here she is:

Just as I was placing my bid for the wheel on Friday, Husbeast sent me a message. At the time he didn’t know about the wheel yet, but he does know how I am. He found this statement in another community where they were talking about other things, he correctly thought it would be appropriate for us. I changed the words a bit to make it fit the fiber lust.
When asked how many more wheels you need, the answer is “just one more”. It’s always going to be “just one more”
The equation (which I really appreciated) looks like this:
X=the number of wheels you currently own
Y=equals the final number of wheels you want to own.
Therefore X+1=Y
And on it goes. It’s nice that he understands.
Now I have to find a place to put Jensen. I think the Ashford or the Louet will have to reside at the shop for a while.

I finished Baby boogies sweater and I forced her to do a photo shoot. I think she was tired because when I asked her to pout her lips and toss her hair back, she just stared at me. I still need to go through the photos so I’ll keep this all about spinning.

I started the fiber from Abby
More of the fiber:

Some of the singles done:

I did one of the four batts. I’m thinking of holding off now until Jensen gets here. But then, can I wait til this weekend? Can you guess what I’ll be doing all day Sunday?