buriedinfibre.com

Meet the new blog, same as the old blog. Well, in most respects. It’s still me and the content is still mainly fibre-related. The name and the format is new and will be changing as I become less irdum in the programming department.

We have a new gardener it seems. She comes and has a strawberry or two and then scoots up the giant dogwood in our neighbour’s backyard. As long as she doesn’t taste all the plums on the tree like the last squirrel did, she’s welcome to stay.

The Cuckoo Batts had been piling up around here and pretty as they were, when you live in 750 sq ft with another human, a dog and two cats, space is always at a premium. They take up much less space as yarn and I used them as a learning tool to fight a bit of my OCD. You see, the batts are sometimes lumpy in places. My OCD makes me want (need) to make them smooth. So usually, I would pick out the offending lumps or spend much time making them smooth. With batts though, the lumps are often a feature and made of something really pretty, so picking them out is a little defeatist. Lucky for me, only two of these batts were of the lumpy variety. I managed to get skeins ranging in weight from lace to worsted. The batts weighed between 70 and 100g, so I should be able to get some scarves and hats out of this lot. ‘Cause it may be out of the fibre stash, but it’s only really moved laterally into the yarn stash.

This sweater has finally moved out of the UFO pile. I started it last summer and managed to spill booze on it. That, of course, put me off it and it languished in the big pile for almost a year. It’s the Plain Vanilla Pullover from Knitpicks done in Crayon, their 100% pima cotton. It’s very soft, very light and fits like a guy sweater. I suspect the monkey will pilfer it.

We’ve had the most amazing stretch of good weather. It’s been ages since it rained and the flowers are loving all the sunshine. I am too. Our deck is loaded with flowers and if it weren’t for all the traffic noise, it would seem like a little oasis.

Coming soon, monkey fishin’ pics and the new and improved (read that as neutered) Gir.

Oh yeah, maybe I’ll have figured out how to add links by then too…

I need to figure out how to shut my brain off at night. Staying up till three just isn’t as much fun as it used to be. I think because there used to be other people up with me and alcohol was involved. I did get to see a really good lightening storm last night though. It was very impressive. We don’t usually get such good ones here on the west coast.
But really, I need sleep.
The book is keeping up nights now. There’s a website under construction, domain names are parked, software has been bought, and I’m rapidly filling a notebook with ideas. If only I could do it during daylight hours!
Anyhow, because of all this, the blog will soon be moving to a new home and changing it’s name. Hopefully this will happen within the next month. I’ll put a redirect here when the switch happens.

Lorena send me a great parcel this week. There’s some of her handspun and a batt of the same fibre blend of dorset, meerino, silk and mohair in a very pretty green; another of her batts inan alpaca, silk and merino blend; two skeins of Artyarn merino (which is destined to become socks); some chocolates and two citrus infused honeys that I can’t wait to try. For some reason, Florida seems to have the best honey I’ve ever had. Must be all those killer bees.
Thanks Lorena! There’s something on it’s way to you right now.

Since we finally got some good weather, we’ve been able to make some improvements around our property. My shop finally doesn’t look like a decrepit old hovel anymore. Some paint, a new door and flowers have spruced it right up. I’ll spare you the inside view as it’s not nearly as nice… yet.
We spent Canada Day doing yardwork, but it was worth it. Everything looks a lot tidier . The kiwi no longer seems to be some west coast variety of kudzu that’s trying to dominate everything in it’s path, including the neighbour’s yard.

Yes, that does look like a different dye lot doesn’t it.
Bloody Arucania. I had a sealed bag of ten. Even though there are no dye lots on the stuff, you’d think they’d be from the same batch if they’re in the same bag. Obviously, that’s not the case. I’m leaving it. It’s done and I can move onto to other ufos. It’s just a casual hoody, so harm done.

It’s the Olive Branch yoga hoody from webs, sort of. I made it a pullover and added ribbing in places. It only took seven hanks of Nature Wool and now I have three more to make a scarf or something.

No pics of Gir this go ’round. He’s recovering from tutoring and has asked that there be no photos. So here’s one from April, right before I left for Sock Camp. It’s my girlfriend and me at the Sidney ferry. She’s tall, thin, blonde and funny. Try not to hate her too much, she’s really very nice. Besides, I remember her from back in elementary school, when she was tall, thin, had a blonde afro and wire framed glasses. She has to be nice to me. I have photos.

I have finally formatted the pattern for this sock!
I’ve named it Tamarissa after a dear friend that passed away several years ago. She always did what she wanted to do. She built guitars, went to Emily Carr and was an amazing, creative person. She crammed more into her fairly short life than almost anyone else I’ve ever known.
She loved purple and figuring out how things went together. So I think she would have liked this sock.
I hope to have it up as a pdf in the next little while.

I admit, blogging is never my first priority. Sometimes, there’s just too much to be done offline in the real world.
I managed to get the sock knitter working and cranked out some blanks that are going to be dyed and put up for sale at the Victoria Knit Out on the 22nd. Now all I have to do is get the ribber working and I’ll be able to make socks on it. The escapades I’ve had with the ribber made me put the whole shebang back out in the garage in a time out. If it just can’t behave, then it has to go in the corner.
Of course, it’s definitely user error. Pretty steep learning curve on these things. I can’t believe traveling salesmen used to talk women into buying them. There seems to be an awful lot of maintenance that goes along with them.

Satan’s Hand Puppet has been doing what he does best, growing at an alarming rate. And yesterday? He chewed up yarn! And he did it really quietly. I was in the other room and just heard this soft rustling sound. When I decided that he’d been too quiet for too long, I went into the living room to find three balls of yarn, sans labels, artfully strewn across the rug!
He knew it was bad and did it anyway. So very evil.
We had a little “chat” about things that we shouldn’t do. Hopefully, he won’t do it again. Because he can jump and climb, it’s pretty tough to keep things away from him.
So evil.

This is the monkey’s idea of mowing the lawn. He’s so easily distracted. He decided the tree, that shall not be mentioned because it is the provincial flower and we don’t want anyone calling the authorities on us, needed some branches trimmed (and it was just trimmed, we didn’t cut it down, everyone relax) and spent about 3 pruning it.
Eventually the mowing was finished. And I breathed a sigh of relief that nothing else caught his eye.

What would one of my posts be without some sort of home reno?
We had the countertops and the bathtub refinished this week. The house still smells like laquer, but it looks very nice. And it was much less expensive than replacing them. I’m fairly certain we would have had to remove an exterior wall to get that tub out.
This was much easier.

There’s even potential for knitting content in the next post!
Unless Gir eats it.
So evil.

Since both Debbie and Leslie tagged me for the same meme, I guess I’d better do it. I thought about letting Gir do it, but he still can’t control his paws well enough to type. Spike offered, but I had to stop him when I saw what his things to do today were mostly creative ways of disposing of Gir. You don’t want to know what he’d do if he was a billionaire. Suffice it to say he’s no longer allowed to watch Pinky and the Brain.

The rules of the game get posted at the beginning. Each player answers the questions about themselves. At the end of the post, the player then tags 5-6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they’ve been tagged and asking them to read your blog.Let the person who tagged you know when you’ve posted your answer.

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
I was doing guitar tech work for Washburn and a friend’s band.
The monkey and I were doing house renos. We’re still doing house renos. Do house renos ever end?
Knitting and needlework were done in the evenings, not as work.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list for today (not in any particular order):
Work up a sock pattern.
Download charting software.
Do some laundry.
Blog.
Write at least one book report for my spinning homework.

3) Snacks I enjoy:
Raspberries! I’d live on them if I could.
Chocolate. See above.
Pita bread and tzatziki.
Pepperoni.
Jujubes.
The list goes on, but I’ll stop there.

4) Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
I would make sure everyone I care about was in a house and debt free.
I would punk everyone I know. And film it so I could put in on the net.
I would quietly disappear somewhere warm with a laid back government.

5) Places I have lived:
Victoria, BC
Peterborough, ON
Santa Monica, CA (only for a couple of months)
Sechelt, BC
Burnaby, BC
Coquitlam, BC
White Rock, BC

6) Peeps I want to know more about:
Denise. You been tagged twice now Denise, get to it!
Holly. I won’t hold my breath, but it’s fun to bug her.
Angela
Kerry

And I did sign up for a year of the Cuckoo batts. Lorena gets a big fat enabler award, and some maple candy.

This lovely fibre, while not technically a pitfall that has furthered my current state of perpetual procrastination, hasn’t helped any either.
It’s the last shipment of artfiber that Lorena gifted me with and I’m currently in a mental tug-o-war with myself over whether I need a year of this stuff coming every month, or not.
Pro: I love getting these little parcels of soft yummy fiber every month. I always manage to forget it’s coming and then, there it is. It’s a nice little surprise.
Con: I have yet to actually spin any of it and there’s no shortage of stuff to spin around here.
You can see where this might be a problem for me.

Then of course there’s etsy.
I know I’m a little late to the party on this one, but better late than never.
These great little sock bags came from Japanese Handmade Etc.
Gotta love the pretty and functional aspect of these things. Just the right size and the squared off ends seem to make them fairly sturdy.

And yeah, I found some spindles. Wanna make something of it?
The one on the left is multi-coloured plywood from Dragon’s Cavern, and the one on the right is an Avi Wasserman made from olivewood, rosewood, ebony and has silver inlay. I already have an Avi, but it’s very small and I prefer the slightly larger size of this on. Both spindles spin very nicely.

In the course of catching up with friend’s blogs on Monday (procrastination in action and yes, I meant that to be funny), I found this pattern from a link on Kadi’s blog. So, I had to make a pair.
The mate to this one is now done, and something that’s a gift is on the needles now. It should be done today.
Then there’s the long weekend, house painting, new knobs for the cupboards, puppy training, lawn mowing, landscaping…
It’s a long list.
But Tuesday, back to spinning homework in earnest as I’ve wasted so much time already.
The procrastination ends!
On Tuesday.

Satan’s hand puppet has a brand new trick.
There are now three fewer cat safe areas in the house and the cats are not amused.
It would appear that the furry little bastard can jump and climb. This is a little surprising for us as Loki (aka the good dog) had to try really hard to get on the couches. It involved a lot of scrambling and usually some human assistance.
Gir (aka Satan’s hand puppet) is only just four months old now and can apparently leap tall sofas in a single bound.
Um. Crap.
I must admit though, when he did for the first time on Monday evening, I was pretty excited. I called Mur into the room to see it and made Gir jump onto the futon again and again. It was only later that I realized the problems this will cause.
We’re looking for Agility training places now. Unfortunately, they don’t seem to let you start with your dog until he’s a year old. That’s eight freaking months away.
Pray for us.

Pat Ashforth (yes, that Pat Ashforth) gave me this recipe back in the days of Compuserve. Before blogging and Ravelry were around. It is the single best use of nasty soft bananas I have ever had. But some words of caution before you go checking the cupboards to see if you have all the ingredients.
The first few times you make it, it will take about an hour of prep. It’s not quick and easy and it uses a ton of bowls. Your kitchen will look like the guy in your life cooked when you’re through with it.
Don’t make it for people you don’t like.
They’ll come back.
I tend to cook when I’m stressing, so for the last couple of days, my house has smelled like a bakery and I’ve made two of these cakes in as many days.
My in-laws are coming this weekend.
Friday the cleaning starts.
And yeah, the cake will be gone by the weekend. Just saying…

1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup water
2 cups flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs (separated)
2 medium very ripe bananas
1/3 cup sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup maraschina cherries (halved and drained)

Grease and flour a 10″ bundt pan.

Melt chocolate chips in 1/4 cup of water over low heat, stirring till smooth. set aside and cool

Combine flour, baking soda, salt and baking powder.

In a separate bowl, cream butter with 1 cup of sugar. Add egg yolks and beat well on high speed. Add bananas, sour cream and vanilla to creamed mixture.

At low speed, alternately add dry ingredients and banana mixture, beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Blend well and stir in cherries.

Beat egg whites to a soft, not dry mound. Add 1/2 cup of sugar and beat until stiff.

Fold egg white into batter.

Place 1/3 of the batter into the prepared pan. Drizzle in 1/2 of the chocolate. Add 2nd third of batter and drizzle in remaining chocolate. Add rest of batter.

Bake at 350 fo 50-60 minutes, until cake springs back when touched. DO NOT INVERT TO COOL! Cool in pan till barely warm to touch then remove from pan and continue cooling.

Just a few more pics from camp, then I’m moving on.

One of the reasons I was looking forward to camp was the chance to meet Leslie. She lives in San Fran, so it’s not like I can just hop in the car and go see her. Although, I’m sure we could do some interesting damage at Art Fibers…
It was great to meet her in person and we were actually both wearing the Ribby Pulli at one point.
Random knitting weirdness.

There’s been much talk of the camp monkeys. Here’s mine and Marti’s. Mine’s the one with the hat. His name is Ian Sim and he’s gone to live at the Monkey’s office. Only fitting since he is the monkey’s alter ego.
Note his little X’d out button eyes. We decided he was dead inside as his girlfriend had left him for a lemur who had a hot car.
Poor Ian.

Now these have nothing to do with camp, but I’ve been meaning to blog them for a while. One of the cool gifts that Lorena sent me for Christmas was a subscription to Cuckoo Batts. They’ve started coming!
Aren’t they cool?!
I don’t know what I want to make with them yet, but they look gorgeous just hanging out in my office for now.
Thanks Lorena!!