And I suppose it shouldn’t surprise me. I didn’t ball up the Artyarns, I picked up the Hexagon shawl.

How many pictures of this thing can I string along on the blog? It looks exactly the same as it has all the other times I’ve shown it. But, it’s what I’m working on. Soon, I’ll be done with this center section, and then I’ll be switching colors. I think the little band of flowers will be the purple left over from Liv’s shawl, and then I’m not sure what to knit the lacy border with. The same as the center? Black? Cream? A peachy champagne color (like the one that barely crops up now and then in the center)?

I really have no idea. It’s been so long now, I don’t even remember how many skeins of this yarn that I have, how many I’ve used, or where the remaining skeins even are.

I’m feeling a bit mental.

The doctor doesn’t think Liv’s knuckles are broken, but said that they’re in good enough alignment that there wouldn’t be much we could do anyway. He was more concerned about her fingers getting infected. (It was a nasty, bloody mess. Peeled skin everywhere. I actually couldn’t clean it. Nate had to. Although I’m a major blood-wuss, I have up ’til now been able to care for and bandage my injured children. This was really gross).

I have some pictures of one of our evening strolls. Nate calls it an “evening constitutional”. It’s really nice to get out on warm evenings and walk for a couple miles. The girls have recently started riding their bikes on these evenings. In the past, we’d all walk and play guessing games.

Despite the fact that I find Nate sinfully handsome, he dislikes having his picture taken and makes it very difficult. I can frequently only get the back of his head.

You haven’t seen Clark in awhile. Can you believe how old he looks?

My wholesale order is due to arrive today.

Yippee yippee yippee yippee yippee yippee yippee!

So, there’s this guy, maybe a decade older than I am, that lives somewhere in our neighborhood. He rides by on his bike a lot, and if we’re out front doing anything social, he stops and kind of participates. That’s probably overstating a little bit, but he definitely lingers more than I would think is customary, as “neighborly” friendliness goes. He’s not creepy or anything, he’s very nice, but very interested in whatever we happen to be doing out front.

Anyway, he stopped again recently when I was hacking down the last remaining rhode in preparation for the painter, and started asking questions about our walkway, which eventually led to the front door.

Remember a few posts back, when I linked those groovy doors out of Austin, Texas? Well, he suggested this place significantly closer to us than Texas that I didn’t know about, and raved about their prices and service. I looked them up on the internet yesterday. Check out these groovy doors! We like #’s 2 & 6 the best. I have no idea how much they are, but we’re going to check it out. (Our front door is totally falling apart, and it is getting more difficult to actually get into the house at times). So that’s cool.

I’m thinking about balling up the pink and white Artyarns laceweight and starting something simple for me. It’s been awhile since I’ve had a take-along knitting project on needles. I can’t knit socks right now, or Liv’s cabled sweater with my elbows the way they are. Lace seems to be the easiest on my arms, but the shawl I have going now (the huge hexagon from Victorian Lace Today) just isn’t grabbing me. It’s SO easy, that it’s a little difficult. That sounds dumb, I know, but the fact that there are very few yarnovers ends up making me count to find my place more than I actually end up knitting. Allover lace is easier to read and remember.

So, I’m wondering if I should make a really big Angel Lace shawl, like Abby’s blue one, or should I do something with that daisy lace stitch again, like a big triangle shawl, and pick out a pretty border to go with it? Or something else entirely?

In the class I took with Judith, she showed us how to blend mohair locks with silk on hand cards, and then spin off of the cards into the easiest and smoothest laceweight I’ve ever managed. I think it’d be fun to use up all my pink and white yarn on the body of the shawl, and then spin up some white mohair/silk to border it with.

It’s such an edible looking pink color. Like ice cream.

Liv hurt her hand last night. I’m concerned that she may have broken at least one knuckle, possibly more. Today, I need to clear off our front porch for the pressure washer, take Abby to her ukulele lesson, and then head straight off to the doctor for Liv. It’d be nice if I could cast something on before I go, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to.

Ack! What’s the deal? I keep missing Saturdays for Health Group. Sorry.

This Saturday, I spent the whole day reading Breaking Dawn. Interesting book. Probably my least favorite of the 4, but I didn’t NOT like it. It was just weird, and pretty gross in parts. But then, I am beyond pansy about medical stuff. I have to concentrate on not passing out with needles, IVs, or even smashing my finger/toe really hard.

So, yeah. It was too much for me. I had to put it down twice and focus on breathing for awhile. And the second time I set it down, I couldn’t feel my arms or see quite right.

That being said, I think that normal people would be fine with it. I’m a pansy. For reference, I was totally squirming during the fight scene with James in Twilight. I’m happy to discuss the book in email with those of you who have read it. No spoilers here. Hayden doesn’t have it yet.

ANYWAY…. Health Group.

Not a great week, but I did exercise a few times. Met my Calorie Target twice. This week will be better. There’s not a party every night, for one, and I have exercise already scheduled with my friend, Ros. We worked out this morning for 50 minutes.

My house is getting painted this week. I’m really excited.

I’m still playing around with practice batts. This time, I used my gray wool, black alpaca, and pink silk noil that Heidi from the Artful Ewe gave me a couple years ago.

The swatch is my 2 ply, and the ball is 3 ply. I’m interested in the difference between the two once they’re knit. This batt is significantly softer than the ugly orange/brown one I was working on last time. I think it’s due in part to the wool, but mostly the alpaca. My black is considerably finer than my brown.

I’m really just biding my time ’til my wholesale order arrives. It’s been shipped!!! I should get it in a week, and it’s full of different colors of superfine alpaca, silk tops and noils, some different wools to play around with (just to see how they compare in a batt with my Romney), mohair locks (to see how they compare with what I can get locally), and I snuck in some baby camel down for me :-).

I have high hopes that the superfine alpaca will make my batts deliciously soft. I’m pretty pleased with how this black and pink one is coming. Visually, it’s still not what I’m going for, but with each try, I’m refining it and working it until ultimately I have my own, perfected (according to me anyway, I know it’s subjective) recipe.

I have a monster headache today. I could even feel it and was aware of the pain in my sleep last night so I’m exhausted.

My elbows are getting better. I had a physical therapy appointment this morning, and the tightness and pain are moving and pinpointing. I’m hoping that I’ll be substantially better in another month.

Well, I had two great weeks this month, and two bad weeks. I did manage to exercise with my friend Ros twice this past week. I’ve been using her elliptical, and I think we’re going to do that semi-regularly. Calorie King gives me twice as many calories burned for the elliptical as it does for walking 3 mph, so I like that.

I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this on Health Group yet, but it’s phenomenally helpful, so I wanted to share. No matter what I eat or how well I feed myself during the day, I turn into an entire-pantry-inhaling monster around 3:30-4:00 in the afternoon. I don’t even realize it ’til I’m done. It starts with a few bites of one thing, a few bites of another, picking and grazing through the fridge… until I’ve totally blown my diet.

SO, I tried to think of what I could do that would be simple and effective to help myself through that time of day. And I found it.

I take a glass (8 oz) of 1% milk, put in a half scoop of my WPI protein powder, unflavored, add about a Tablespoon of either Strawberry or Chocolate Hershey’s syrup, and mix it with my little hand mixer.

It’s fast, it’s simple to keep on hand, it tastes good, and it immediately satiates. Completely. Cravings and hunger gone.

On occasion, I add half of a small, frozen banana and mix it up in my blender. It’s amazingly good.

The funny thing is that sometimes, I’m a step or two into my “entire-pantry-inhaling monster” phase before I even notice what I’m doing. I then look at the clock, see that it’s that time, and stop to make my little milkshake.

It has saved me literally thousands of accumulated calories, and I was doing it during my two good weeks, when I lost inches and felt like a million bucks.

So, there’s my helpful hint. I think Hershey’s makes sugar free syrups if you need that. I, personally, am against artificial sweeteners so I don’t go that route, but thought I’d mention it for those that do.

I’m really going to try to have a good week this week. I have a “special” event of some sort or another every single night this week, so it’s going to be tough. But I’m going to try.

So, aside from Hayden moving to New York this week, our babysitter moved to North Carolina (this week),

and another fiber-appreciating friend is moving to Turkey next month. I threw her a farewell BBQ yesterday.

This so royally sucks.

Nate keeps asking me if I’m ok, and I’ve caught him looking at me like I’m going to break at any second. I guess I’m not handling myself as well as I think I am.

So, I’m ignoring my house and laundry and playing with fiber. I guess that the official term for what I’m doing is R&D, or Research and Development. I was talking with Nate and a bunch of men at a social gathering last night who were surprisingly interested in my little business and asked a ton of questions (that was flattering. They also made fun of me, but that’s how it goes with these guys, and I throw plenty their way as well). And that’s what they called it. Research and Development.

I’m good with that.

SO, I’m doing Research and Development, which sounds so much nicer than “ignoring my house and laundry to play with fiber”, but they’re essentially the same thing.

I took some of my dyeing disasters (the silk was the biggest disaster) and made some batts. Then stripped them in half lengthwise to experiment.

I spun up little half/batt skeins

balled them up and have begun knitting a swatch to see which fibers and configurations I like, trying desperately to ignore the fact that the colors are heinous.

And knitting a swatch with what looks like Hunter Orange flecks of silk in it is what drew the attention of the men. My participation in the conversation ended when I was asked if I could dye and spin belly button lint. I said, “probably”, they started chortling and lifting their shirts, and I left to find some women to talk to.

So, aside from working with the batts, I dyed more yesterday. This first picture is Tussah noil, Bombyx noil, and a clump of the romney locks I’ve been working with, all dyed in the same pot at the same time. I added salt this time to see if that would help the wool dye evenly.

Nope. But the silk did fine.

So I mixed up my little jars of Jacquard dyes, blended a couple colors together to re-create the blended nature of the Judith dyes that are giving me trouble.

Though the orange wool looks the same in both photos, they’re completely different. The wool in the top photo is distinctly red and yellow, and the bottom photo is a lovely, dark rust color. The rust dyed pretty even, just a little darker at the tips, which is fine. The blue/wine locks are divided like my Judith dyed wool.

SO, I emailed my wool supplier, and when they are back in town in August, I’m going to get me some new fleece. It has to be the fleece. I probably bought the one freaky fleece out of 5,000 that is dye resistant. They want me to bring some of my wool down with me so they can check it out. They’re stumped, too.

And my sister-in-law just called to confirm that I’m hosting our get together this morning.

Oops. Forgot about that.

So I have 45 minutes or so to shower, get dressed, and try to clean up a bit for company.

Oh, and one more thing. We changed the font on my Tweedy Batts website/logo. Do you like it?

Good morning! So much is happening around here, it’s been a busy summer. I haven’t had time to do the heat-massage-ice thing to my elbow, and it really helps, so I need to get on that.

Camping was great, tho’ there wasn’t much sleep to be had.

The roof thing was cut down off the front of our house last night. I’m so excited. I spent some of Sunday measuring my yard and drawing out a to-scale layout of plans and plants.

Yesterday, I took Abby and Liv to the Apple store for an Apple day camp where they learned how to use Garage Band. I picked up some great tips, too, and learned how to record multiple tracks simultaneously. That was cool.

Abby broke her glasses on the campout. I’m off to take her to an eye appt and to open my Tweedy Batts bank account.

There’s more, I know there is, but I can’t think at the moment. I’ll post pictures later today.

If you click on each picture twice, you can see it uncropped.

I’ve been cleaning a LOT! It looks pretty good around here. I’m not done, and I’m not speaking of my bedroom… But our main living area (kitchen, living room, dining room, entryway, bar area, old-laundry-room-turned-butler-pantry) looks nice. I’ve had to mop three times in the last two days. That sucks, but after going to the effort to mop thoroughly recently, I do NOT want to stick to my floor for at least another week. So I’ve done little areas here and there to keep it nice as things have spilled and then been tracked all over.

So, I’ve been cleaning the house and cuddling my son, who is having digestive trouble again and has needed hours of comforting.

What I have not done is exercise, stay within my calorie target, or heat-massage-ice my elbow like I’m supposed to.

Darnit.

And it isn’t going to get any better ’til next week because around lunchtime today, the kids and I are going camping at one of my sisters-in-law’s houses with all of the other sisters-in-law and accompanying kids while the men do a Batman movie-guys-night-out. It’ll be a grand time. I’m really looking forward to it. But I will undoubtedly eat too much and not exercise.

I’m running the dutch ovens.

Our contractor dropped off wood and ladders this morning to begin ripping off the vertical, purple siding on the front of our house. One more tiny step towards getting cleaned up and painted out there. They’re going to rip off the little roof thing, too. I’m very excited about that. I hope it’s down when I get back tomorrow afternoon.

Have a great weekend!