New Year's Eve Morning

It's about that time again, to go into the new year. Attempt to stay up until midnight playing monopoly or risk or trivial pursuit, and make resolutions you never end up keeping. One might wonder why we even try, sometimes. We've all made it through Christmas or yule or Hanukkah or something. Most of us have eaten a lot more yummy things than we should have, and our new year's resolutions include losing weight, losing lots of weight. We want to fit back into those pants and have them look good dammit!

I was pondering the other day on the subject of mascara and how, not unlike nail polish, it made my eyelashes suffocate. Well, nail polish doesn't make my eyelashes suffocate, but rather, my nails. In any case, it occurred to me that the vast majority of makeup is applied in such a way as to make us look more vulnerable and weak. Did you know Marilyn Monroe had one of her high heels made intentionally shorter than the other, so that she would sway as she walked, for just that purpose? Makes you wonder, when did weakness become attractive? I suppose it varies from culture to culture, but in most of them, strength and beauty (at least for us females) are mutually reclusive (I really wish she hadn't stopped writing that blog, alas).

I guess what I'm trying to say is society is odd, and conforming is proving difficult. Not much knitting going on at the moment, I guess it'll have to be a resolution. Also, it may not be very well known, but I am, in fact, the queen of healthy homemade waffles. It has once again been proven by delicious spelt dairy-free (except for eggs, but are they considered dairy?) rice milk waffles! Huzzah!

Saints alpacas

A word about Leanne St. Jean. She's a lovely lady, and she has more dogs than you can imagine. Anyway, on Sunday December 10th I took a friend (and two kids, neither of which were hers, but that's another story) out to Saints Alpaca farm. It was great great fun. You remember LaRocque? The fleece and yarn of incredible appaloosaness? Well let me tell you, he sure is something to see in person.

I also got to see quite a few other familiar fleeces while I was there, and leave Leanne with some yarn and a sneak peek at her up and coming shawl.


Behold, Aztec D'Kota, Currently becoming the Swallowtail Shawl. It think that's the name of it anyway, the one from the summer or fall issue of IK? D'Kota is actually not that dark of a fawn, but none of the other pictures turned out nicely.

She was kind enough to send me two lovely white fleeces. Alanna and Aristocat.


At this point I'm not exactly sure which one of those pictures is who, but they're both lovely. I didn't actually have a camera with me when I went to her farm, or to the Mooseberry Meadows (you'll hear about that one next), But I'll attempt to find pictures of stuff somewhere. Since we all know drive-by readers only read posts with pictures.

Tongue Twisters

So yesterday I sat in a car, and drove to Penticton and back just for the hell of it. It's about five hours each way. Anyway, as I sat there, a great tongue twister occurred to me.

The horrible hereford hefer haughtily hunched her haunches.

Enough about me being a spaz, and onto the tales of Christmas just past! You'll all be pleased to hear that I received a digital camera. Unfortunately I did not receive it with a memory card, So until further notice it's not incredibly useful. Behold, my previous list of christmas wishes!

My Ten in no particular order :
1 - The forgiveness of someone (you know who you are) that I have wronged in a most dreadful way.
2 - The serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.
3 - An Umbrella Swift
4 - A set of dyes so I can get colourful with my first love (Alpaca).
5 - A Skeinwinder
6 - A new niddy-noddy
7 - Homespun Handknit
8 - High quality dancing shoes for ballroom dance
9 - A quality female Alpaca with which to start my (future) herd.
10 - A good sewing machine so I can become as obsessed with fabrics as Ally is.
You know what else would be cool? A set of KnitPicks options, cause everyone says they rock.

Still working on number 2, number 8 has been most satisfactorily accomplished, and number 9 actually has a promising future. Why you ask? Well, I stayed on an alpaca farm during my long absence. I know, I thought it was totally cool too.

Mail is fun

I got the second package from my pal, she's really cool. She's also like, the queen of gift wrap. I'm serious. I couldn't gift wrap to save my life, but she has it down pat. See that? It's a brick of icelandic chocolate. I know! I've been called a chocoholic before, and it's true. Nothing gets me like organic dark! Not so much into milk chocolate, and don't even get me started on the white stuff, but anyway. There's some beautiful green stitch markers, some bamboo needles (maybe I'll knit the next shawl on them?) and really yummy silk yarn. She said she thought I could use a bit of luxury.

Oh, here's some yarn that's getting sent out tomorrow for a trade with Country Haven farms. All white suri, except for that bottom skein which is plied with dyed mohair I got from my very first secret pal exchange. There was just a tiny bit of it and this was the perfect project.

Do you all want to know why mail is so fun? I bet you do. Well, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Here's two pictures :

While I could write two thousand words on this glorious piece of machienry, suffice with these two statements. Strauch Drum carder with fine cloth AND brush. Cards like a hot damn.