memes

From Rows Red, a little meme for a snowy Friday morning…

Looking back, what was your major knitting/crochet/spinning accomplishment for the last year?

Mr. Greenjeans – my first sweater in Painted Sheep yarn, in a colorway created especially for the project.

What was your biggest lesson in 2009?

Its sooo not worth it to stress myself out over the holiday knitting.  Someone remind me of that next December 23.

What skeletons are in your project basket?

The fair isle cardigan that I designed myself, at a class at Harrisville (Fair Isle Design with Donna Kay), at least 6 years ago – it moved with me to Connecticut.

What’s your favorite yarn from the last year?

One of the silk blends I used – either Manos Silk Blend or Malabrigo Silky Merino or Silky STR.

List your active works in progress.

The crocheted red scarf, Crazy Woman socks, Paris-Roubaix scarf and Wisteria.

What are your knitting/crochet/spinning goals for 2010?

Knitting – finish at least one old WIP, finish the afghan I started and knit Wisteria

Crocheting – don’t really have one

Spinning – actually spin, and not just at Guild meetings

What knitting or crochet projects are on your radar for the New Year?

sooo many – the first that come to mind are the French Press Felted Slippers and BAWK Hot Water Bottle Cozy

Anything else you’d like to tackle?

Destashing – there’s 3 full bins in my studio waiting to get put up for sale, just from the first pass at the stash.

My inner narcissist loves these things.  I’ll try to be creative and come up with stuff that you might not know yet.

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

Feeling lazy, so I’m not going to tag people.  Play along if you want – I do love to read about others though, so leave a comment for me so I can check your post out.

25 Random Things About Me

1. Fiber is a huge part of my life.  10 years ago, I thought fiber was something I needed to eat more of.  My only exposure to anything yarn-y was from my grandmother who tried to teach me to crochet when I was a kid.  I failed miserably.
2. I got glasses when I was in 3rd grade.
3. I also grew out of child size shoes and started wearing woman’s size shoes in 3rd grade.  It was a rough year.
4. I have 2 tattoos – that bit you might have known.  I have plans for 2 more.  Both will mark big things in my life.  One, I hope to be able to get in the next several weeks, depending on if/when something happens.  The other, I will get within the next couple of years, depending on when I achieve a big life goal.  Not telling what these “big things” are…
5. I’m scared shitless of how much tattoo #3 will hurt.  I was much younger and stupid-er when I got the first ones.
6. I love E!’s live from the red carpet stuff.  Its the pretty dresses.
7. I have a Master’s in Rehabilitation Counseling.
8. I should have a Master’s in Procrastination.
9. The closing on our first house was on a Friday.  My last graduate school class was the following Monday.  I couldn’t go to the house I had just signed my life away for on the day/weekend of our closing because I was still writing my last paper for grad school.   It sucked.  See #8.
10. Nothing’s changed.  Today I drove 80 mph to deliver a grant application by its deadline.
11. I’m trying to convince my husband that I’m afraid of the vacuum cleaner.  12 years and it hasn’t worked, but still trying…
12. I met my husband when we worked at the same group home.   I grew up 10 minutes from him in neighboring small towns but didn’t meet him until I was 21 and he was 25 and we were working on the opposite end of the state from our home towns.
13. Harrisville, New Hampshire is my happy place.  If I ever run screaming from my life, look for me on the front porch of the General Store.  I’ll be eating quiche, drinking fabulous wine and hoping there’s a good class starting soon.
14. I would love to have a sheep farm.  Except for the sheep shit.  And the coyotes.  And living in the country/suburbs.  But pretty sheep (and alpacas and goats and sheep dogs) in a field and my own supply of fiber (’cause seriously, I need more) would be very cool.
15. I’m happier than I’ve ever been in my career, having my dream job in an amazing non-profit, doing the woman-centered, empowerment-focused work that I love full time and playing with fiber in my own business “part time”.
16. I hated my last job like no other, especially for the last 6 months.
17. I met Gloria Steinem at my first protest.  It was in front of the White House.
18. I met Hillary Clinton at another rally, this one in Seneca Falls, New York, home of National Women’s Hall of Fame.
19. I’ll likely never knit through my yarn stash, nor spin through my fiber stash.  I couldn’t care less.  Last week, my husband suggested that rather than hitting a yarn sale, I go shopping in the yarn shop that exists in our attic.  I believe my exact words to him were “BITE ME”.
20. I grow beautiful, lush roses, perennials that flourish and more veggies in my garden than we can eat and yet I can’t keep a house plant alive for a month.
21. I love wine and going wine tasting.
22. April 15, 2007 was one of the proudest days of my life – it was the day The Painted Sheep was officially opened and I sold my first item – handpainted Rambouillet/Corriedale blend in Raspberry Sorbet.  I cried happy tears when the email for the sale came in.
23. I don’t have a passport and I’ve traveled very little, outside of New England.  The only time I’ve ever been out of the country is on my honeymoon to Aruba.
24. I moved to Syracuse 5 weeks after getting accepted to grad school there, never having been there and only with some vague notion about ” a lot of snow”.  Our first apartment was in a horrible neighborhood.  The landlord talked us into it with some b.s. about it being “up and coming”.  Ha!  Pretty quickly, we met the homeless guy who liked to hang out on our doorstep and smoke blunts.  Fun times.
25. I badly miss the kind snow we had in Syracuse, even the white outs.  That said, I hope I never see a “roof rake” again in my life.