Tag Archives: random

It’s been one of those weeks that is crazy full, but not necessarily great blog material. Last weekend Neil and I processed 12 chickens. The freedom ranger roosters always grow faster than the hens, so we do them first. The coop is a lot more peaceful now and I think the layers are glad to see those boys gone. But it’s a long, hard day of work, and not the kind of work where I feel fulfilled at the end of it.

Since then I’ve made stock (still needs to be canned) made more pasta sauce, finished hulling the dried beans, harvested the last of the broccoli.

I’ve also been doing a lot of computer work. I’ve been fixing layouts for wholesaling (that takes a lot of time in the evenings) The speedy sweater I knit last month is graded, the pattern is written down (and not in the chicken-scratch notebook either) and it’s off to be edited. My blog is all dressed up for fall. I’ve done a lot of photo editing too.

Does anyone want to hazard a guess as to why Microsoft picture manager is making all my photos look dull and gray suddenly? I didn’t used to have this problem, and then I calibrated my monitor. Now the jpgs and tiffs look fine in: photoshop, picture and fax viewer, paint, and anything else that was willing to open a jpg. But in picture manager they look gross. What’s even more confusing is jpgs I saved before calibrating my monitor look fine. It’s only the ones I’ve saved since then. AND if I use the “export for web and devices” setting in photoshop then the pictures look fine. And I could say “well that’s the reason there” except that all those older jpgs that look fine weren’t saved that way. I wish I could say I don’t care, except it’s nice to have a quick way to browse photos. And photoshop is many things, but quick isn’t one of them.

So yeah, life is busybusybusy but not all of it is blog material. I secretly think that’s a good thing.

I went camping this weekend. It was wonderful! Relaxing, hiking, eating, sitting around the campfire, hanging out with friends, and generally unplugging. I turned my phone off Friday night on our way over and didn’t look at the internet again until Sunday. The great thing about spending two nights out is that I really feel like I had a vacation. The down side is it’s like coming back to the real world after vacation.

Also, I took zero pictures. So we’ll have a random post instead.

1) If you also like camping, the VT Knit Camp is coming right up. Not sure if we still have space but you could contact our organizer and find out.

2) I’m increasingly dreaming of changing in my battered old travel mug for a knitted mason jar cozy and a cuppow. I think this idea is silly and awesome all at the same time.

Obviously it’d be a narrow mouthed cuppow so the jar would still fit in my car’s cup holder.

3) I think my corn will survive! The ears are putting out tassels now. The truth will come out eventuall.

4) I’ve picked almost two bushels of green beans in the last 9 days. I need to find time to blanch and freeze them.

It’s hard to keep up with the garden AND go camping.

5) I knit an entire hat this weekend. No, I can’t show it to you any time soon. Sorry.

6) The little meat birds aren’t so little any more. I need to take more pictures of them.

7) While hiking we met a black lab EVEN MORE CRAZY than Jake. I assumed he was a puppy. But no, like Jake he’s also 6.

That’s 6 years, not 6 months. I suddenly feel better about Jake’s crazy energy levels.

8) This is one of the very few times I wish we had more TV options. Anyone know of a good way to stream the Olympics?

9) Rhinebeck is in 12 weeks. Twitter alerted me. I figure it’s only fair to pass on the information.

10) Don’t forget you could win some buttons this week!

11) I may have just talked myself into buying yarn for a Roam tunic. Because OF COURSE I have time to randomly knit a sweater. Maybe in time for Rhinebeck?

I didn’t announce the winner of Incarnate yesterday. Let’s pretend it’s because I didn’t want to break up the poem and photo yesterday.

The winner is post #6: dothutchison. She picked Team Sylph which was a clear underdog with just 3 of 10 votes.

Which team you voted for doesn’t actually affect the random number generator.

I finished my stripy scarf. I love it.

Neil has threatened to steal it twice, even though it’s mostly purple.

I found a chicken under the coop this morning. This is a normal spot for them to hide.

The weather has been so gross we haven’t let the chickens outside in 2 days. I wonder what she’s been eating.

WordPress informs me that this is the fourth post I’ve titled “Randomly.” I’m ok with that.

I’m not going to the post office between now and Christmas. I’ve got 3 or 4 packages ready to go, but they’re all gonna have to wait.

I should point out I don’t wonder what the escaped hen has been drinking. It’s been rainy enough to solve that problem.

I’m having trouble getting into the Christmas spirit. It’s at least 1 part weather. Also 2 parts missing my sister.

We don’t even have a tree setup, although I did put some festively colored yarn on display:

I feel a sewing project coming on. Maybe next weekend, if I get my deadline knitting finished. I want a hip length pea coat.

Current frontrunner is this one. But I’m open to suggestions.

Knit night at my house tonight – I’m very excited.

My bean seeds are sprouting today and I can’t wait to see them when I get home!

Neil is coming home from his week driving across country today!!!!!!

I’m not excited for knitting tonight – my friend Amy is bringing her drum carder (Amy: don’t forget!) and I’m going to card up batts! All kinds of batts!

It’s free entry weekend at VT state parks, and we’re going to go canoeing!

I have two hand-related photo shoots planned in the next two weeks. My hands are all beat up from gardening. I’m not sure how this is going to work.

I may have been dying fiber samplers in bright colors all of last night.

Food dye colors skin too. See point above about hand-related photo shoots.

Our CSA starts up next week. It’s perfect because the lettuce I over-wintered is finally starting to go to seed from all the heat we had this week.

Mama chicken has been sitting on her eggs for 3 days longer than it should take. I’m going to give her new eggs after I clean the coop, but I’m afraid she’ll get bored and give up…

Did I mention Neil is coming home today??!! So excited!!

I should just make random fridays a thing – they can have their own tag and everything!

I’ve been rotating ads in a ravelry spot to see what gets the most response. Can you believe people want green backgrounds this time of year? Shocking…

here’s a hint, the last one didn’t do so well…

I need some buttons. I have a design that’s all finished and ready to go in the mail, except for the lack of buttons.

I actually bought some yarn! Just a few skeins – I have quite a few friends with babies on the way and it’s time to knit some baby things!

Next week they’re going to make all patterns visible on ravelry*. I’m very excited. My patterns have been visible for some time. This will nullify my ongoing complaint that designers don’t have off-ravelry pages for their designs.

I was outside this morning and guess what! I have bulbs!

Those last ones are garlic bulb shoots. I counted 40 shoots up already. I can’t wait! I also have lettuce and spinach and swiss chard that survived the winter:

I was up until 1am last night helping Neil with a poster board presentation for school. Luckily they taught me how to make a good poster board in high school…

*not projects, not forums, just patterns, which is all I really wanted anyway.

I like random fridays.

Have you seen the new Twist Collective? So pretty! My favorite pattern is probably Lizette. Tunic length, cables, draping fabric – all things I know I like. I also really liked the article on farm yarns. Do you have a favorite pattern from this issue?

Neil and I are going to try something new. Tonight we’re going to a comedy club. Should be fun!

All week they were predicting a snow storm, but they couldn’t nail down the amount. It changed from 4″ to 12″ to 18″ back down to 12″. This morning the weather guy said the storm was 250 miles south and east of where they’d expected it to land. Now we’re only supposed to get 1-2″ This makes me INDESCRIBABLY HAPPY.

Slowly but surely I am learning adobe creative suite. I wish I had internet access at home though.

This morning on the bus a lady fell asleep and dropped her glasses. I watched as one rider asked another who asked another to grab them off the floor and gently put them back on the lady’s bag. This sort of thing restore my faith in humanity.

I’m really bad at april fool’s day. I’m gullible and not good at playing practical jokes.

I do not own enough size 7 needles. Currently I need to finish the body of the peace fleece sweater to free up my only circular pair so I can work on the body of my gwendolyn sweater.

We’re under serious flood watch until Saturday evening, the southern part of the state is going to have even more flooding. But really it pales in comparison to the 8.9 earthquake in Japan. I’d rather not have been reminded that things could be worse.

I’ve been composing yarn support requests in my head all morning. It’s amazing how nervous I can get about these.

Yes, that was “requests” plural. I have a new idea for a pattern collection. I’ve decided to tackle right away for a fall release as an e-book. Since I’m going to self-publish I’ll tell you more about it, you know, soon.

It was so windy last night the front door blew open. I’m suspicious it wasn’t fully latched though…

I’ll probably also be polling everyone about e-book release formats. Serially? All at once? With discounts for pre-buying? There are so many possibilities.

Neil bought the dogs a stuffed donkey toy. Now we keep saying “I love that donkey” and it makes me think of the Shrek movie every time.

I’m pretty sure our cat Peanut has a UTI. Neil’s taking her to the vet today to find out, and I can’t stop worrying about her.

I’m sending prayers and thoughts out for everyone effected by the quake and the tsunamis.

On tuesday I got my eyes examined and the dr exclaimed “no wonder you’re getting headaches!” Apparently it’s time for new glasses… I’m really excited about my new, red, frames. But I wish they’d hurry up and arrive.

I’m just about finished with a design for Ennea Collective. I hope you’ll like it as much as I do!

Yesterday on twitter I saw these yarn covered earbuds. I loved the idea so much I started covering mine last night. I only got about 12 inches in before bedtime though. I’m hoping it’ll protect the cords from cracking which is always how my ear buds die.

There’s a bunch of south american exchange students who ride the bus in the morning. It makes me feel almost like I’m back in Boston.

I’m really glad I don’t have to be the one standing as the bus drives over the bumpy VT roads.

I’m getting tired of having constant headaches.

I have TWO! photo shoots to do this weekend. I don’t know how I’ve managed to have so many designs in progress.

I’ve spent the last 2 months feeling like I had NO designs on the needles. Apparently I was wrong?

Neil started listening to Radiolab podcasts. I don’t think he knows how much I’m enjoying them too.

Almost as much as I’m enjoying the Susannah Clifford Blachly CD which I got him for Christmas…