Cowboys & Headaches

I have a nasty migraine today. Could it perhaps have something to do with eating popcorn for dinner (while at the movies watching Cowboys & Aliens) and finishing up at home with a glass and a half of cheap commercial wine (because we’re out of the homemade vintage until the next batch is ready)? I always think there is something different with commercial wines than the yummy stuff T-Man makes but this one is a Headache-In-A-Glass! Bleh. Need more Ibuprofen…

So pre-movie I somehow managed to get lost in my study yesterday while sorting out knitting patterns and attaching possible yarns to the next few in the queue. OK, more than a few. So many knits; so little time to knit them! There’s some gorgeous shawls and I have lots of naturally-dyed lace yarns to knit them with. There’s also a number of sweaters, socks, gloves and hats I want to make. One can never have too many of any of these wooly items – though it’s hard to remember this in the depths of summer. Assuming one has a summer to be in the depths thereof. Before I can begin anything new though I have to finish at least one of my current knitting projects.

I also was able to get T to pick out which pattern he wanted out of the three candidates and he went with the Brownstone by Jared Flood. I’ve already started teasing the fleece while listening to podcasts. It’s rather mindless work. I’d like to pick at least a couple of batts worth before I start carding.

So to distract you from the lack of photos in this post, I was wandering around the blogs and saw that Lynette (Dustbunnies Under My Loom) has been using my old self-published booklet to knit a bunch of little beaded bags. Go see how cute they are! And Judy from Australia (Fibres of Being) has a really good tutorial on weaving bead leno with helpful photos. I’ve always wanted to try this technique but didn’t quite understand the instructions. Need to experiment. Need more time in a day. Need several lifetimes.

After we got home from the movie I finally buckled down and finished winding the rest of my sample skeins for dyeing tomorrow. Then I got them scoured and in the mordant pot (5% alum acetate) to simmer – until bedtime made me turn the heat off and there they remain. I’ll probably fish them out tomorrow morning, give them a quick rinse and take them along wet to the Spectrum meeting. Saves wetting them out there anyhow. Lazy dyer. Now to figure out what to make for potluck with a huge bag of snow peas from the garden. Need sesame seeds…

BTW Cowboys & Aliens was a fun romp. I love well-done sci-fi and grew up watching cowboy TV shows. (Lone Ranger, anyone? How about Roy Rogers? Gunsmoke? Bonanza? Am I showing my age? LOL!) This one is a lovely mashup of genres and a little unpredictable which is always nice. Somewhat overly violent but you kind of expect that in a blockbuster summer movie, don’t you? If it helps, half of the blood is green! Daniel Craig wasn’t my idea of a cowboy but he’s…um…perfect.