luxe

heya peeps, can you even believe this weather? well, here in pa, anyway, it is gorgeous! my chives have come up already, the lemon balm and mint, too, which need to be torn out before they get huge. they tend to take over the garden. a lot. i am always excited to put on the overalls (oh wait, i already wear them a few days a week at least) and my gardening gloves (i know, i know, i wear gloves to garden but not to dye…bugs and rotten stuff…ew!)and my little yellow clogs and get busy. i love it. so fun. we have a strawberry patch that i planted a few years and we get zillions of berries now and they taste so intensely strawberrylicious. so good. and raspberries, which the birds love to eat. ah spring. sigh. i was talking to katrina last night about how fantastic spring is, and sleeping while it is raining, sitting outside on the porch in a thunderstorm…so surreal. again, sigh.

i got a ton of work done yesterday. i woke up really early due to pavel’s talks with the birdies (”hey birdie…birdie…hey birdie…”) and his launching himself onto the blinds at the shadow of the birds on the wire. such a nerdling.

i got a few skeins spun and plied, one with sparkly pompoms, one with tons of flowers, really really purdy. and fun. even after a really long day yesterday, i couldn’t sleep last night. i guess that i metabolize caffeine and such really slowly or something.

my younger brother josh is having some problems with his eyes, which is scary, if i lost my vision…i can’t even think about it. i would wither and die. anyway, he is a writer, his new graphic noveljust came out and is doing really well…my mom went to two places to get it, the first bookstore was sold out! and i imagine he is really freaked out. on the upside, he has a girlfriend that seems really great that takes good care of him and seems to keep him in line (wow!) although, i am sure no one thought that i would score anyone like jake who manages to keep me in some semblance of order. seriously. i was a bit out of control for um…most of my life. and not really in a good way. anyway. just wanted to let my brother know that i am thinking about him and i hope that we can keep better contact from now on. there aren’t so many fialkovs in america, you know. in fact, any fialkov you meet is probably related to us. anyway, congrats josh! this is one of many many things he has done. i guess we are all a bit obsessive about whatever it is we do. peeps is obsessive about peeing on everything and dropping nuggets, kahlo is obsessive about licking, pavel loves drinking out of the tap and saying “wawa”, jake is a musicoholic, i love to clean my ears and my cat’s ears…did i just say that out loud?

oh, also! i am going to be getting a sewing lesson from this crafty lady that lives kinda close by…and i told her that she could either pick out a sock yarn or dye a skein herself. i have a feeling she will be dyeing one herself. she already did a koolaid one and is a sockaholic, so she could really make the excuse that she would be saving money! that was how i got into making yarn. what a downward spiral eh?

i went to drop my packages off at the post office and of course i know all of the tellers (i have some favorities, too) and asked if i could get more of those plastic bins for sorting mail (um, yeah, that’s what i use em for…) anyway, i never have a bag big enough to hold everything and he gave me two gigantor bags literally big enough to put 3 of me inside of. i was so excited. they are ugly, but it works. and i got another plastic bin that i put dyed fiber braids in. that would make a nice photo, eh?

i haven’t knitted anything in a while. i don’t want it to just sit and it isn’t really scarf season, ya know? i made a wrap that is really fuzzy and pretty with big tassels. i might list it. it would be super for summer nights. i have been really uninspired to make anything. i do dyeing and spinning, but i haven’t felt terribly excited by much. not sure why.

i have stitch in my side. i have been having it a lot lately. it feels like an asthma attack coming, but doesn’t. it just hurts. odd, eh?

i will do a better post to-morrow. i swear.
xoxo
n.

okay, so the podcast…we were set to do it last night and i fell asleep and woke up about an hour and a half late for it. so barbe and i haven’t cought up yet, but it will be soon! thanks for the emails about it though…i appreciate that you guys are eager! and sorry. i stink. i am a stinker. stinker. soon. as soon as i catch up with barbe. i swear.

in payment of that, i have some linkies for you guys…on whipup.net, one of my most favorite bloggies, a link to the campaign for making helmet liners. click here for the skinny. i am hoping to be one of the pennsylvania hosts for it, i will keep ya posted when i hear back. i am against this stupid war, but the soldiers deserve to have what they need and deserve to know that we appreciate that they are risking their lives for their country, even if it is a bit…well…okay, end of that.

then, i found this hilarious mockumentary about knitters’ thinking that crochet sucks and it even made jake crack up. the woman in the video makes a comment about people who don’t know how to knit (or crocheters) have no right to come into her yarn shop. sadly, i know people like that. it is so odd, isn’t it?

and from craftzine.com, a budgie that does needlepoint. awww spike! too damn cute.

here are some of the fruits of my labor, if you are interested and i know you are…

i spent the day packing up orders and winding sock yarn (i haaaaate winding yarn.) probably 2000 yards give or take. there should be a bigger crank on the winder, you know? anyway, i worked up a sweat winding it and had to take a break and do packing. i only got to spin a bit, and i am chomping at the bit to spin up the fiber i dyed on saturday, pictured above. i took a lesson from the yarn wench’s gorgeous yarns and fibers and put a much darker accent color for depth on just about everything. i have been using the olive drab to do that. it looks purple before it sets, and the color that it is when it has steamed varies wildly. it is like the mystery dum-dum. really odd. but my go-to dye. i tried brown. tried black. when i diluted them they were too unpredictable, full strength, they are also unpredictable and they don’t spread, they just often ruin yarns. in fact, i tried putting a bit of black on a sock yarn and it is all inky and gross. anyway who wants a black sportweight 8 oz skein can have it for shipping and a few bucks.

i got to talk to my pally poo the knitgrrl herself today for a while. she is a whirlwind. and i love her! she is such a badass, and i mean that in the nicest possible way.

the black donnelly’s is on tonight, fantastic show. i lurve it. i couldn’t figure out where i knew tommy donnelly from, and he was in the virgin suicides, a fantastic, if really depressing movie with a super duper soundtrack. also, the riches on fx with eddie izzard and minnie driver….soooooooo goood. i cannot get enough.

i will be tagging all of the new yarns and fibers, plus some new sock yarns, so i will be doing an update again to-morrow probably.

okay, off i go to do some drawerings.
xo
n.

hey guys, just a quickie because i am really sick of doing computer stuff and am going to go touch some fiber….anyway, my etsy store has been updated and more will be added to-morrow or tuesday. and the podcast should be up late tonite…
also, tons of new photos of dyeing and yarn and kitties and drawerings up on my flickr, so go take a peek if you fancy.
xo
n.

short and sweet…tired. tired. tired. i did a lot of WORK today. yes! me. i did. i dyed a bunch of stuff, including soysilk which dyed very similarly to silk, so not solidly, but i think it will be pretty. i cleaned my grody studio and it looks purdy good, although it could use a vacuum, but i don’t bother with the vacuum on that carpet. no go. too much fiber. i also got lots of drawerings/collage done (did you guys see the puuuusssy anon commenter ripping on my sketchbook/journal? seriously. so sad.)

i have been a bit focused on drawing furniture. dunno. wanna see a few dyeing photos? and there are a gazillion more where that came from, jake got a bit overexcited. also, there was a big salad bowl full of water in it that pavel played in for about half an hour, splashing the water, drinking it out of his paw, splashing it. that boy loves water. he claims it is his tiger ancestors. could be! so, update around 6ish, i hope (i have lunch with the inlaws and then the updating) and then the podcast will be a bit later (10 eastern time, i think…i bit later, maybe. ) but i have some good stuff to be mentioned.
mwah! mwah! mwah!
n.

so pop on by fluff-a-licious.blogspot.com this evening! what else? well! i did a LOT of dyeing today, including some gorgeous soysilk, plus i am hoping to have time to do some batts that have lots of bamboo and soy in em, plus wool. if you haven’t used soy or bamboo yet….it is like silk without the funny smell. so yummy! and a renewable vegan source of fiber. how cool is that? so i will be updating to-morrow. i have some good stuff. really good. i swear. yum!

jake took loads of pics of me dyeing, which will go up on flickr, (that sounds morbid, eh?) which i will load up for your enjoyment to see my gross overalls of podcast fame, (the non-crotchless ones) and me with wet hair and no make-up, so be kind. and continue to pretend that i look cute, okay? if jake can do it (and he has to live with it) so can you. just continue to be the sweet lying friends that you have been thus far. no one wants to know the truth.

so here is a new version of the poppy scarfaletta, i added this gorgeous fuzzy yarn to the usual grassy one, and i did a braided version with three crocheted strands braided and tons of fringe…they will be listed, i don’t know if i showed you already…

here is a journal page from a night that i was feeling kind of down and actually let myself write it down. i used to be morbid all the time and now, i feel like it is a bad thing to let it sneak in, even in my artwork. i don’t know if that is true or not, but i am actually a fairly happy, if bitchy person now. being grown up (ha!) has really agreed with me. i was rather miserable most of my life, and now i am glad to be somewhat in control, which i never felt i was. anyway, here is what my handwriting looks like. this is only one page of several of this entry. it was late. i felt sick. i had pms.

okay, i am off to tidy the studio a bit and do some work before the podcast.
xoxo
n.

first, let me just say that for some reason, i don’t get an email to tell me that anyone has left a comment on the blog. it is really odd. at first, i thought i was getting no comments (although it is true that i am not getting nearly as many as i used to, which is a bit odd…) and then i realized sometimes is says 0 comments, and there are some, or it just doesn’t alert me. dunno what to do about that, though.

here is sedgewick, the baby owl love creature from lookwhaticando.etsy.com that i got for my niece’s 4th birfday. she loved him and slept with him and her bunny and pulled the felt back to expose the whole eyeball for when he is “awake”. happy birfday sweet girl!
i want to get one , too. when i have some cash…okay, any cash at all…i will get myself one, maybe a bunny. they are soooo cute.

here are some journal pages for you to check out…some kitty faces…the natural fallback when i have nothing else to draw…

there are some other journal pages on flickr if you feel like seeing my scribblings…

kahlo has been trying to get a job as my intern (i think she go the idea from you, shannon!) but all she really wants to do is lay on yarn and eat it, so i keep it in my studio…
what were we winding up?

bunny foo foo yarns and melange yarns, which are the bunny ones, with more crazy stuff thrown in, but no bunnies. i have a few skeins availabe which will be listed to-morrow, so let me know if you want one. i have some other fun ones coming, too!

otherwises, not much. i have been super tired lately, having horrible horrible nightmares, as always, but really scary ones. they are like horror movies, but i am in it.

off topic, i am watching supernatural, a surprisingly cool show and they have all sorts of good music on it, including mark lanegan one of our household’s all-time faves. really fantastic.

barbe and i are planning to do another podcast on saturday. she found a conference calling thingy that we can use, and i have not tried to figure out how to do anything fancy like i promised i would. bad bad me. sigh. i have done close to nothing this week, it seems like. although, i guess that isn’t really the case.

i am zoning out, so i am going to go and do some drawering, etc, etc.

warm fuzzies
n.

i am just now checking my mail, etc, and only made it through one account. i had that bad night on saturday i think, and it threw me off. i woke up today and was totally exhausted, to the point of not being able to get up, i can’t see straight, or rather, am seeing double. i wanted to do stuff today, but am too out of it to do so. i felt like i could go to sleep at any point during the day. anyway, i know some people tried to call me or dropped an email, i am okay, just totally wiped. i am hoping to be good enough to-morrow to get work done and call people. i have more of the bunny foo foo yarn done (don’t worry, the first one is for you nomes!), the next one is for another person that wanted it last time but it was taken, but i have plenty of the beads and am doing all of them with all of my odds and ends of rovings spun overlapping and with a mixture of 4 different angelina sparklies and some amazing yarns, too, so they are lovely. the client that go the first skein crocheted it up into an amazing scarf using a gigantic hook and i don’t know how to take the photo out of the email and post it here or on my flckr account, or else i would. can anyone tell me how? anyway, it looks incredible. i was really surprised at how fantastic the bits and pieces of roving looked lik together. i do put thought into the color, but mainly just that the contrast to whatever is next to it and don’t use anything plain by itself. it has multiple kinds of wool, ingeo, silk, soy, cotton, bamboo, mohair, merino, and more. seriously. i am aiming at running through all of my bits and pieces and compacting some of my stuff.

i really want to blog more but i am soooo out of it and tired. wanna see? it ain’t pretty. but at least i’m honest. notice that it is dark and my pupils are pinpricks. also, that one eye is halfclosed.
blech. i feel soooo out of it. i also had jake some photos of me working in my sketchook over the weekend and pavel lying under my knees.

i am stunned at how fat i look and how enormous my boobs look/are. i hope it is just a bad bad photo, but i think i need to go on a diet, although i don’t eat much. i also don’t exercise, and hate doing so and would be using what bit of energy i have on it, which doesn’t thrill me. when jake and i started dating i wore a size 3/4 comfortably. and that was 6 years ago? i am not even sure, but not that long and now i am not so happy with my body. i am not even sure what size i wear, but i am always super excited to go to the beach and i am not happy about anyone seeing me, especially my in-laws. maybe my enormous boobs will distract from my enormous thighs? hmmm….it just might work. but i will have to walk backwards. i will have to get a sarong or something. that will amke me feel a bit more comfortable. anyway, i need to do something about it. i don’t want to end up being enormous and have lupus and god knows what else. and jake denies that have gained weight, bless his heart. he says taht he is fat. yup. he says people on the beach will pity me for being with such a “disgusting slob”. i think he has it mixed up. i am an obsessive person as you may have noticed, so the only way i can diet is to REALLY diet. i don’t cheat. i don’t do it halfway. the problem with that is once i get to the part where you start adding carbs or whatever, i am screwed. when i did the atkins to originally lose a bunch of weight, i did fantastically, but i damn near stopped eating because i had no appetite because i was sick of eating the same low carb food and wasn’t hungry. really. i got so skinny that people asked me if i was okay. skinnier than my frame was meant to be. although i was still flabby in the thighs and stuff. so i know that if i want to go back on a diet i can, and i can do well, but i am not good at going back into a normal diet. sigh. i do miss the days not so long ago when i felt hot.

okay, i am going to shower because my nose is super sensitive and i feel like i smell bad. i will postyarn photos and some of the spring knitting and crocheted things i have been doing for luxe. really pretty lightweight stuff…
xo
n.

i ran out of my sleeping pill and couldn’t sleep last night. in addition to the lack of pillage, jake was tossing and turning, cats were all over the bed, kahlo wanted to sleep on me, so i was flat on my back and she was purring so loudly and happily like a big pigeon that i couldn’t kick her off. i read my book, knitted, got sleepy, couldn’t fall asleep…and then, i woke up at about 5a and the sun wasn’t up yet. once it was up, pavel did his usual thing where he sees the shadow of birds on the wire outside on the roman blind and launches himself onto the blind right up at the top, and i have to remove him because he is hanging there not sure what to do. and then, he will do it again. grrr. verrrry annoying. so when i woke up i had a baaad headache, although it did go away with proper caffeination and medication. mmmmm. i spun some really cool odds and ends yarn, which i will photo and list to-morrow, plus a bunny yarn for one of my regulars that asked for it. we got groceries and that was about it. oh, we watched the prestige which was really good. it is based on a book which i will probably pick up. although now i know the ending. damn. also, i realized that the dresden files is based on a series of books as well.

oh! i almost forgot! the riches! with minnie driver and eddie izzard was on this weekend and it was fan-freakin-tastic. i was even more excited by it than i thought i would be. i don’t know what the rules of cable shows are, if they get cut if people don’t watch or what. i hope not. it is so amazing, the acting was fantastic although the accents were a bit odd, as brits and aussies trying to do american accents tend to be. i describe them as trying to do a john wayne/midwestern/marbles in your mouth accent. regardless, it was really good. on FX for anyone wondering. good. good. good. i am foaming at the mouth for next week’s episode.

here are some of the collage pieces i promised that wouldn’t load…

i have more, but they aren’t finished, so i will just post pics when they are done. and yarn photos too, no worries. okay, i am feeling sleepy, so off i go…
xo
n.

how cool is that? it is so flattering. it is the poppy scarfaletta which is going like gangbusters. i have been thinking of doing wone with crocheted fabric for spring/summer eves, as well as maybe a wrap with them all over. that might be cool?

okay, it is 2 am and jake is asleep with kahlo on top of his butt and pavel is in psycho mode and i passed out for a couple of huors earlier, but am finally getting sleepy. gonna look around on etsy’s treasury some more until i am sleeepy. my pics on flickr STILL didn’t load since like 4 p. anyone else have that issue?

xoxox
sleep well, well
n.

seriously. i am losing track of time. i seriously thought today was thursday. needless to say, i have been known to miss appointments. often. also, this is my 701st post! can you believe that? it seems like only 700…

whilst doing some spinning i watched land of the blind with one of my most favorite actors, ralph fieenes and donald sutherland. it was fantastic. so so good. 2 thumbs up. i did another bobbin of bunny yarn because one of my best clients found more of the bunny beads(although they are pastel and it seems like a skidge smaller, but the same) which i strung and plied on to another bits and pieces yarn. she sent me a photo of the scarf she made from the yarn and it is so amazing. i was almost surprised how incredible it looked, but all of the different bits of roving overlapping makes so much movement. and she always adds the best fringes and loads of it, just like i like it. i do looooooong fringe, although i haven’t done many scarves lately. i am feeling like a should.

i ordered from southwest trading company today, i got loads of different soy silks, bamboo and a blend of soy and merino, as well as one made from milk proteins that is absolutely heavenly, if pricey. there aren’t many gorgeous soft veggie fibers out there, or lighter weight ones for spring and summer. i am not experienced at dyeing veggie fibers, but i will give it a shot and while the fiber is rather expensive, it really is something special and well…truly luxe. so i will be selling yarns with different fibers as well as fiber for spinning. a lot of them are lovely in their natural color, caramel or coffee colored, as well as one called “black diamond” that is naturally a silvery gray color and feels like a superfine merino blended with silk, just heavenly with an amazing sheen. i used some of that in my yarn called gray matters, which is ingeo (corn silk) and the black diamond…here is a photo, although i have learned that spinning it thinner is a better way to go…this is my first attempt…

oh, also, swtc used to sell all sorts of novelty yarns which they are getting rid of in favor of the natural fiber way, anyway, i got a bunch of sparkly threads for plying which i am excited to use.

i have been working on mixed media pieces still, these are not finished, but here is some eye candy anyway. scratch that. flickr is not uploading at the mo, so i will add em as the possibility arises. sigh.

i added some new stuff to the www.luxe.etsy.com shop, and will be adding more this weekend, too. so pop by, okay? all but one yarn i listed last time is left, so i added a few more, including a snow bride (woooot!) and more fun stuff to come.

it was 70 degrees and gorgeous early this week, then stormy, and now SNOWING and really cold and poopy. what the hell? i guess lots of places around here are flooding. we live on a bit of a hill so we are usually okay, other than our 100 year old stone basement with a dirt floor not being so waterproof, but nothing major usually.

okay, i have a bit of a headache, so off of the web i go.
xo
n.