Yesterday was my birthday, and J and I took a break from our unpacking extravaganza to enjoy the day.  We had perfect weather: high of 82, no humidity, and tons of sunshine.  J organized a lovely day for me, which I’m sure my readers here will appreciate.

After a delicious breakfast at a cool local eatery, we hopped in the car and drove about 30 minutes south to Amazin’ Grazin’ Alpaca Ranch.  Angela, the ranch’s owner, gave us a tour of the grounds and let us in the pen with the animals.  It was such a cool experience!  I’ve been dreaming of owning a fiber farm for some time now, and this visit really solidified it for me.  The alpacas were curious, gentle creatures, who flocked to investigate us at first and then went back to their business.  I have a full photo set on Flickr, but I’ll warn you it brings some serious cute with it.  We may have left with literature on alpaca ownership.  Oops!  After wandering around, we saw the fiber shop (chock full of alpaca fleeces), and I left with about 7-8 ounces of grey fiber from the herd sire.  I can’t wait to try my hand at this.

After a lunch at home, we then headed to Allegan to visit Barb at Marr Haven.  I bought two cones of their yarn, mule-spun from their organically raised Merino-Rambouillet cross flock, back at my first visit to the MI Fiber Festival in ‘07.  I started using it for a Central Park Hoodie, but I loved the yarn too much to force it into a gauge at which it wasn’t happy.  I ripped it before the move, and still haven’t found a pattern to do it justice.  The yarn is lanoliny, undyed, and just the best.  Soft but very strong.  Barb showed us around her shop, which carries not only their natural mule-spun but also some that has been dyed lovely, heathered colors, as well as some hand-dyed yarn (a skein of which came home with me).  We got to wander out to the barn and see the flock, who were quite shy but also quite beautiful.  Barb was the highlight of this visit for me: she is warm, personable, and really very funny.  She answered all of our questions and took lots of time out of her busy day to show us around.  I will definitely be going back for more of her yarn and her conversation.

I highly recommend visiting both of these places if you’re in the area, and visiting their online shops if you’re not.  It was a day that made me feel grateful to live where I do; I feel so lucky to be able to visit these businesses first hand and support my local economy, as well as play with adorable fibery animals.  I am also, of course, very grateful to have a husband who not only supports my fiber obsession but organizes entire days around it.

In other news, I started a Year in Pictures project on Flickr.  I’ve been thinking about it for some time, and what better day to begin than my birthday?  I’m approaching this as a fun project and a learning experience.  I have a few goals: improve my photography skills, get more comfortable taking self-portraits, and don’t cop out with too many photos of my cats.  I’m excited to get started!

Though the blog has been rather quiet lately, there has been an awful lot happening behind the scenes.  First, J and I are in the process of moving.  While we absolutely love our apartment (LOVE), we’ve decided that it’s wise to downsize due to the economy and our desire to buy a house in a year or two.  So, we’re actually moving to a smaller apartment just upstairs from us.  It is still very cute with lots of character, but I’ll really miss this place.  It’ll all be worth it, though, when we save enough to buy a place of our own.

On the knitting front, I’ve been quite the busy bee.  I have three, count ‘em three, WIPs on the needles right now.  Please allow me to present them to you:

WIP numero uno: Leybrun Socks

I started these, my first socks in Koigu, the night before our rehearsal dinner as a move toward relaxing.  I knitted on the first sock in Prague and en-route to and fro, and finished shortly after our return.  I love the first sock, love the color, and the pattern is fun to knit.  I just have to find the motivation to cast-on for the second one, which is tough because right now most of my knitting time is being spent on

WIP numero dos: Mom’s birthday cardigan

I’m knitting her this Drops cardigan in KnitPicks Shine Sport, and I’m having a lovely time.  Mom picked this out, and I chose the yarn (the color is just so perfectly “her” I can’t stand it).  The pattern is really quite lovely, though I don’t think it’s been a big hit on Ravelry.  It’s kind of an odd length as written, which may be part of the issue, but that is a very easy fix.  The sweater is coming along nicely, although I’ve twice found mistakes that necessitated ripping out inches of knitting.  I’m teh suck at following patterns, apparently.  The yarn is quite nice, I find, and I’m pleased that it’s machine washable AND dryable.  What a country!  I love the lace on the bottom, so here’s a gratuitous shot of that.

WIP numero tres: Mystery Garter Project

I started this for some friends who are getting married in the foreseeable future.  I won’t say much more, other than it’s garter and it’s going to take me forever.  I don’t want to add photos in case said friends read here.  (If so, hi, kids!  Now mosey away so I can talk about your present some more).

So that’s it on the knitting front.  I’ve also got some big plans for a shrug for yet another soon to be married friend.  This is no secret, as she’s been involved in the planning every step.  I’ve just got to get some appropriate yarn for it and I’m on my way!  And now I’m off to schlep more things upstairs and go buy J a dresser.  Oh, the joys of moving.

So last week I decided, chuffed up by my recent spinning victory, to try something new.  Jason and I went through my rather limited fiber stash and came away with this BFL I bought at last year’s MI Fiber Festival from Sandy’s Palette.  I wasn’t crazy about the colors, but I’d gone specifically looking for BFL and this was literally all I found at the entire festival.  So I thought I’d give it a whirl (no pun intended).

I spun this stuff up in a frenzy.  I sat down last Wednesday with  a disc of Veronica Mars and A&E’s Pride and Prejudice, and when I was done I had a bobbin full of 4.1 oz of singles.  I spun the rest over the next two days, plied and washed it Sunday, and now here it is.

This yarn is not my favorite, for many reasons.  First, I’m still not crazy about the colors.  Secondly, I didn’t spin it very evenly, which I think is a result of several factors.  It’s been pouring rain and humid here for about a week, and my wheel doesn’t like that kind of weather.  Also, I’d never spun BFL, which is a lot more fine than the Corriedale I’ve been working with.  I think that I’ll try this fiber again during dryer weather and I’ll come up with a much more even yarn.

In the end I’ve got 398 yards of two ply, worsted/heavy worsted yarn, with some thicker and thinner spots.  I think it’ll stripe up rather subtly, and am considering designing a vest to show it off.  Of course, I may just make some mittens or something since I’m not in love with the colors.  They’re very tough to capture, and vary per hank.  In some places there is a lot of light blue and seafoam green; in another hank the colors are going to stripe really clearly, and the third, mini hank has a lot more forest green than the others.  It should be fun to knit up, and we’ll see how I like it in a swatch.  Though I’m not in love with the resulting yarn, I do like the softness of BFL, and my love affair with my wheel continues.  Now to figure out what to spin next!

*Yes, I’m a dork.

I had a lovely lunch with a friend today, during which we discussed, among other things, the disconcerting experience of getting a PhD.  We’re both nearing our Qualify Exams Phase, which is both exciting and daunting.  While we chatted, we came to the conclusion that graduate school has fostered in us a sense of prolonged adolescence.  For so long we’ve wanted to get to this phase (and beyond it, to the dissertation and, eventually, tenure-track phase), and yet we’ve worked on it for so long that it’s kind of shocking that it’s here.

I know that, personally, I still struggle to feel like a grown up sometimes (an experience I’d imagine is found in many professions).  I can’t believe, for instance, that I’m now married; that I’ll be 28 in a few weeks (the same age my mom was when she had me); that I’m no longer a “kid” but an “adult.”  These are exciting changes, and probably came for my friends in other fields much earlier; while they are buying houses and having children, J and I are still enjoying a relatively responsibility-free lifestyle without children or dogs or a mortgage.

Before the wedding, however, I took a step toward growing up.  As I near the comp/dissertation phase, I’ve realized it’s time for me to make a big purchase: a laptop.  I’ve resisted having one for some time, but have come to realize that it will be incredibly useful not only in my classroom note-taking and my writing, but also in my teaching.  I like to encourage an inter-disciplinary learning style in my classroom, and constantly want to show my students things I’ve found online, borrowing J’s laptop every time.  Finally, we’d both had enough, and J stalked the Dell website until he found me a sale.

I wanted a case for my new toy to keep it nice and shiny, and being who I am I refused to buy one.  I did some searching and came up with this tutorial, which produced this lovely laptop case in one afternoon of cutting/ironing.

I know it’s not perfect, but I do really love it.  I improvised the little design on the front, which I wanted to look like the sun peeking behind some clouds.  I also freehanded the wavy edge, which I like due to its imperfection.  I wrestled with the double faced fusible interfacing a bit, but I’m sure it’s one of those things that will be much easier once I get used to it.  I can definitely see where it would be nice and handy in many crafting pursuits.

Yes, I know the colors have become predictable for me, but I just don’t care.  My love for heather grey knows no bounds, and the yellow looked so nice with it at the wedding that I thought I’d apply it to my case.  The case is really quite useful, and provides a nice layer of protection not only while in my bag, but also when I use the laptop.  It’s actually double layered, which you can see on my Flickr page.  I like protecting my laptop from whatever grossness is on the tables in the classrooms and coffee shops where I use it most, and I also love that the case, when open, doubles as a very handy mouse pad.  Overall, I highly recommend this tutorial.  I hope someone finds it useful!

A lesson in consistency

Originally uploaded by ms. mcgee

One thing I’ve been doing since we got home is spinning up a storm. I’d forgotten how much I love this activity, and it’s been so good to spend some time with my wheel again.

I dyed this batch of Corriedale up over winter break, and spun the two leftmost hanks in January. I didn’t touch my wheel for 5 months, came back, and spun the two rightmost hanks this past week. I was shocked at the very visible, as well as tangible, difference. On the left I’m still struggling with twist, not getting enough in my singles or really in my plying. On the right, however, it seems something just clicked. While this yarn is far from perfect, it’s relatively consistent and actually held together during the washing process. I love the way the colors are more visible, as well as the subtle sheen the yarn developed from being spun more tightly.

Oooh, look at that close-up.  I love the way the blue pops in little random spurts.  Today I’m going to start some more fiber, and I’ve been drooling over fiber on Etsy for a few days. How did I ever forget how much I love spinning?

Our wedding photos are in and we’re THRILLED!  If any of my readers here are interested in seeing them (be forewarned, there are a lot!), drop me a comment and I’ll send you the link and password.  Have a great day, all!

Pattern: February Lady Sweater by Pamela Wynne of FlintKnits

Yarn: Blue Moon Fiber Arts Luscious Single Silk in colorway Sapphire, almost 2 full skeins

Needles: Denise US 6

Notions: 3 pewter buttons from Stitching Memories

Began: April 23, 2009 ; Completed: May 10, 2009  (Ravelry project page here.)

Notes:  I was in the throes of wedding planning, with about 3 weeks to go, when I decided I absolutely had to have a hand-knitted cardigan to wear on our honeymoon.  I knew the evenings in Prague would be chilly, and that a store-bought cardigan wouldn’t do.  So, at the close of my semester and with 3 weeks until the wedding, I swatched as soon as I printed my last paper, and cast-on the following day.

I followed the pattern pretty much as written.  I did, however, go down a needle size as this yarn seemed it would stretch (as noted by BlueGarter in her version).   I ended up knitting the XXS size for my M sized body, and I’m glad I gambled: the fit is quite nice, I feel, and it keeps on stretching each time I wear it.  I did away with the underarm stitches altogether to combat the bunching that happens there in a few FOs on Ravelry, and I’m happy with the fit.  I ended up knitting the pattern to my regular preferred sweater length of 22 inches, and it stretched even more.  I sort of like this length, though, as I’m short and short-waisted and this makes me feel a bit longer in the torso than I am.

I ended up liking the color of the yarn, which was initially a disappointment.  The variegation doesn’t distract from the pattern too much as it’s rather subtle, and the result reminds me of a sweater that a mermaid would wear.  You know, if she were chilly under water.

The yarn is lovely to work with, and the shine works nicely with these particular colors, lending to the overall watery impression it gives me.  It does, however, pill like crazy.  I was prepared for this since it’s a single, and I’m okay with it, but be forewarned.

Overall this was a really pleasant knitting experience, and the pattern is well-written and very fun to knit.  I blocked it and picked up buttons right before my bridesmaids/mom arrived days before the wedding, and sewed on the buttons and packed it just in time.  (I love the buttons, by the way.  They’re so pretty!).  I wore the sweater happily the entire honeymoon long, and it’s reminded me just how much I love a good cardigan.  I feel this will get a ton of wear all summer, as well as during the fall.

Bear with me, folks, because this might be a long one.  As anyone who’s been reading for a little while knows, the wedding has occupied a lot of my time since December ‘07.  As you also know, we had a limited budget which, combined with my insanity, led to me doing a LOT of the wedding stuff myself.  I thought it might be fun to do a quick roundup of things, just so that anyone who’s interested can find some tutorials and ideas.  Here we go!

Made by Moi (and family/friends and J)

• Save the Date Bookmarks (blogged here).   I’m pleased as punch with the way they turned out, and have a ton of paper left over for future crafts!
• Wedding/Bridesmaid shawls.  Blogged here, here, and here.
• Centerpieces.  I hated the idea of flowers, because they’d end up getting thrown out (and they’re so so expensive!).  Instead I went with bowls full of lemons (inspired by this Martha post), and my aunt/friends/mother-in-law decorated them with grey ribbon on the day of.  We found trifle bowls at Kmart, and ended up giving most of them to friends on their way out the door.  The lemons got used for shots, for lemonade and baking by friends, and I turned ours into Lemon Blueberry Cake, lemonade, Lemon Raspberry Muffins, and Lemon Bars.  Yum!

• Pom-poms!  They’re all over Offbeat Bride, and for a reason.  My mom and bridesmaids and I cut them out, and then the aforementioned wedding day craft crew assembled them.  They added a grey ribbon to the center, which was a lovely touch.
• Bouquets!  I made mine using this tutorial and lots of different colored ribbons.  My mom made the bridesmaid’s flowers using another tutorial from Martha and some fabric scraps.  Then I went to Hobby Lobby and got little foam bouquet skeletons and pinned everything together, wrapping the bottoms with floral tape and ribbon.  I idiotically didn’t take photos of the girls’ flowers, but I have a feeling the photographer did.

• Guest quilt squares.  My friend Kristin cut these out at a craft night, and then I ironed them and put them out with a little poem that J and I wrote with instructions.  We put out Mason jars with fabric markers and asked people to sign or draw on the squares.  The results are fun and creative, and people really surprised us with how much they got into making their square.  I got the idea from a wedding on Offbeat Bride (which of course I can’t find now), and I just loved it.  I know we’d just put a guest book on a shelf somewhere, but this we will use and cherish.

• Frames for guest quilt poem and seating chart.  We got these cheap and spray-painted them grey.  Jason made the sign for the quilt with instructions, and I made the seating chart using leftover paper from the CDs.

• CD Favors.  We came up with a fun mix of songs (not mushy at all), then J made the CDs and stamped them with the same little bird stamp from the invitations.  I made cases for them in yellow and silver velum from this tutorial, and placed one in the center of every plate.
• Caketoppers.  Jason and I picked out Wesley and Buttercup from Cubeecraft, and he printed them out and assembled them.  We got lots of comments!

Made by Others

• My earrings, from Etsy seller Hotpins.  Great service, and they were simple but still structural.
• Headband and birdcage veil, by Etsy seller MyraKim.  I can’t gush about her enough; her pieces are unique and truly custom.  I told her our colors, that I preferred feathers to flowers, and that I wanted to incorporate guinea fowl feathers.  She rocked it, and I want to wear it every day.  Would that be weird?
• Handbag from Etsy seller Shakuyaku.  The perfect colors, and just gorgeous.  I’ll definitely be using this again.
• Invitations.  My friend Kristin and her mom made them, and they turned out great!  They took my colors and ran with them.  I then embellished the reply post cards with a little stamp of two birds kissing that I got at Hobby Lobby, and they were on their way.

Hello, all!  Thanks so much for your well-wishes on my last post (if you can even call it that).  Jason and I are back from our honeymoon and settling into married life quite comfortably.  It is, to be honest, much like our unmarried life together, except we each have shiny new rings to wear and refer to each other as a new title.  When someone asked Jason if he was nervous to marry me, he replied, “Mick and I have been married for years in my eyes, and this is just making it official, so no.”  I felt the exact same way.

I’ve been trying to write this post for a few days, but nothing will really materialize.  The day was so much fun and SUCH a blur, so I’ll try to include some of my favorite candids on here (most of which are stolen from KV, whose flickr set has the best shots of the wedding!) and some of my favorite moments.

• Walking down the aisle on the island.  It had been raining for over 12 hours straight, and I was getting a little nerovous.  Then, about 2 hours before the ceremony, the sun came out in full force.  It was still muddy, but not enough to force the ceremony to move indoors.  When I was walking down the aisle to one of my favorite love songs (Barry Louis Polisar’s “All I Want Is You”), seeing Jason smiling at me, the wind picked up and a TON of those little tree helicopters came flooding down like confetti.  They fell the entire ceremony.   It was so gorgeous.
• My mom did a traditional Polish blessing, aided by Jason’s mom.  My heritage is really important to me, and it was really special to incorporate it at the reception.  Afterward my family spontaneously started singing Sto Lat to us, and it was such a warm moment.
• Our first dance, to our song (Bright Eyes’ “The First Day of my Life”).  Jason was singing to me, and we were both pretty weepy.  It was pretty funny, because we were just sort of swaying and hugging each other really tight.  Now I can’t hear that song without tearing up.
• My family cannibalizing the lemon centerpieces before dessert was even served for lemon drop shots (they’re a family party tradition).
• Dancing all.  night.  long.  I danced so much, and had such a great time.  It was great to see my friends from here and home, J’s friends from home, and both of our families all sharing the dance floor, laughing and having a good time.
• Hearing people rave about the wedding donuts (from Sweetwater’s Donut Mill in Kalamazoo).   It was so great to see that people liked them!

There are so many more, but I can’t really recount them all.  We had a gorgeous day, a lovely weekend, and just a fantastic time.  We wanted very much for the wedding to be more like a big party at which we just happened to get married, and I think that’s what we got.  Since that weekend (two weeks ago today!), people have been telling us just how much fun they had.  We got married, people ate good food, and everyone had a great time.  Mission accomplished.

to say that I’ll be back soon with a shiny new last name, and an FO post of my FLS shot in Prague.  Catch you all on the flip!