luxe

i have blue/black grody fingernails. i did a bunch of dyeing, including some with fiber reactive dyes (i finally got the dye for your bamboo shannon!) although what was supposed to be teal, and i only used a teaspoon, looks navy. it isn’t rinsed yet, so fingers crossed. gah! i also found some “cotton” i got from little barn a while ago that i wasted 3 tubs of procion dye on, which literally just rinsed right out. why? well, because i think it is actually nylon. arseholes. i actually nearly tore my hair out over it, i couldn’t figure out what the issue was and dharma told me that it had to be treated or coated and that was why it wouldn’t take. or, it is not cotton. oh yeah, that is why i don’t order from them. anyway, i got some new colors, i tried most of them out, but had only rinsed out one roving and one bag of loose mohair (thanks chocolatte!), some ecru firestar (thanks barbe!) and some border leicester locks. i had some linen and hemp top from i dunno where that i dyed with the bamboo. i hate how it feels, so i am sure i will sell it. it is like rope. gross. so, i got all of that done today, plus a sam i am sock yarn at the yarn yentas request. cool! i will take photos and will be listing some loose fiber and some dyed top. there are some really gorgeous super saturated ones and some nice soft gentle colors, too.

i had an order from a regular that wanted more of an artyarn, except that i made it in a different batch, so it looked different and she was bummed. i actually need to make notes for myself so i know exactly what goes into certain things. i do remake lots of things at clients’ requests, or just sometimes because they are really popular. it is never just the same, though. i have several remakes to do this week. i relisted a few yarns that i have more of the fiber for, and of course all of them went at the same time, so i need to get them done and out in the next few days. not that i am complaining. i am happy to have business. i know things have been lean for a lot of people. everyone is broke.

after the dyeing, i worked on some of the softies i had halfway done. i hope to get them finished this week and they will probably have clothes, too! one of them is pink and cream striped birdie. the other is a kitty.

speaking of softies, i got the “plush you!” book which is fantastic. really a gorgeous book with some artists that i hadn’t heard of before. it is so good that i bought it twice. okay, i accidentally bought it twice. anyone who wants to swap me something for my brand new never read second copy?

i got a ton of spinning done today…about 6 hours worth and then getting some plying stuff cut, pulled apart and strung. i will probably be able to get the rest done to-morrow. i have had really bad cramps over the past week, but they come on suddenly like food poisoning. blech. i hate that stuff. anyway, i have been able to push through and get stuff done, so that is good. i have made some more neckwarmers, too.

i hope to load up new yarns and fibers, etc, to-morrow.
xo
n.

so firstly, update. nonstop, everyday new things added…birdies with hats (yes, really.), freeform crocheted jewelry, tons of scarves, neckywarmers and other wearables and yarn and fiber. yesterday i did my first holiday yarn of the season that has tiny christmas lights in it. i have to take photos to-morrow. super cute. really. so pop by and try to pop by every day if you have a moment to swoon. hee.

new season of project runway. ooooooooh. so excited. it seems like a higher quality of designers. it always cracks me up to see the 21 year olds that have that “it’s perfect!” way about them still. and then, a few years or 10 later, you are horrified that you not only cranked out really strange stuff (and not in a good way) but did it with obnoxious attitude. sigh. and then the slightly older people that are more of an artist and make really odd things that wouldn’t suit many people, but they love that about their clothes, but it makes most people hate them. those people never get hurt because they think that you just don’t get it. maybe that is best, really. so far, good. what say you?

in other news, jake got me (and himself) and early channukah/xmas pressie…a BIIIIIG ipod video! squuuueeeeeeee! i have had a 10G first generation ipod for ages. the battery doesn’t work, although i fairness, it has never broken and has worked forever. it is covered in paint and ink and is a mess, but it served me well. we have huge music collections in this house and i am unable to keep track of what we have and where it is because i had no room. so i got the biggest memory ipod and you can put photos on there and shows and whatever you like. so. awesome. i am on the lookout for a fun cover for it. any ideas? thanks jake!

my good etsy friend, ashley and i are doing some swapping for xmas gifts (okay, maybe some of it is for us, too.) and i am super excited. jake got two really cute new jackets, a black velvet blazer (he looks so gq in it!) and a olive green corduroy jacket with patches on the elbows…really swank, so anyway, he needed some cufflinks and i found these awesome ones in ashley’s store…lookie here…i have one of the pebble rings from her shop from a previous swap with an opal set in it (my birfstone) which i love, and she made me custom a wee love knot ring. so go…buy. her prices are really reasonable. and she is awesome.

i think that is about all for the mo.
xo
n.

i have a hideous hand cramp in my right hand and arm that my brace isn’t helping with. so this will be short. as you can see, kahlo said she would type for me, but she just types whatever she wants.

341 people heart me on etsy! how cool is that? do you heart me? do ya?

i had to ship an order from the luxefibre website and i couldn’t access it. i guess that there are some updates going on in the software, so until i get it updated, no dice. everything on luxe.etsy.com is fine, other than not showing up quickly in the searches. if you go to my actualy store, everything should be there…no worries. i will be doing loads of dyeing this week, so prepare for that, and with the summer weather, i will be forced to do the vibrant bright wildflower-a-rama, so they will be gooood. for sure. i spun up some of the fiber i dyed last week, in a pink and yellow, there is still a few bumps of that left which will be listed, but it is such a happy yarn. i hope to ply it tomorrow if my hand feels better. i am planning to do the hot pour method of dyeing, where i will heat up the fiber in my roaster (maybe even outside!) and then put the dyes in, where they will strike immediately, so things don’t really mix. i am eager to see the different result. i will try to document for ya.

okay, off i go. gah.

okay, so firstly, i will be udpating some NOICE stuff on luxe:
and that is just a teeny taste. a teeny teeny taste. so. go. check it out! here! each yarn order will come with gorgeous handmade stitchmarkers from my buddy katrina, as well as all kinds of fun stuff that i usually wrap up with the orders. go on, spoil yourself!

what else? well, i have a new amiguri princess for you to check out. her name is collette. she is really cute and she knows it. she was born fuzzy and his a lock of pink curly hair. she is a bear, but has no tail, oddly enough.

she aspired to be a chiropractor, her specialty being fish, birds and snakes, but realized that chiropractics and these sorts of animals are a deadly combination. deeply discouraged at the animal carnage, as well as the destruction of her dreams, she turned to gambling.

she has a gambling addiction, her game of choice? yatzee. she is a poor loser, going utterly nuts when she loses, curses, accuses everyone of cheating and throws the dice across the room. ironically, she herself is a cheater, has magnetic dice and is really poor at math so most often, she loses anyway. additionally, when she wins, she dances around, shakes her fuzzy butt and acts snarky. it is difficult for her to find anyone to gamble with her, so she frequents old age homes and rips off septegenerians and older, taking advantage of their poor memories in order to cheat and get extra turns. how wrong is that?

she eats nothing but scharfenberger chocolates with at least 85 percent cocoa, and dissolves this in her triple espressos. i know. crazy stuff. especially when you are only about half a foot tall. hardcore.

her favorite colors are pink (like her hair) and purple.

additionally, i spun some loose mohair singles that are just amazing to do some amiguri with. i am curious to see how they will look, but i think, judging from how good cheapo fun fur feather stuff works that well that mohair would look amazing. i have something on my hook right now and then the mohair will be next.

yesterday our friend jason and his girlfriend came down for dinner. we grilled out (of course) and grilled pineapple (my fave) which is amazing if you haven’t ever had it. it is awesome alone, but would rock on icecream or custard. so good. just slice em as you like and lay em right on the grill. i also cut some zucchini lenthwise and marinated it in balsamic vinegar with some salt and pepper and a bit of oil and it was really yummy. we went for icecream at rita’s after that and my stomach had started to really hurt by that point, and yeah, i ate a kid’s cup anyway. we got home, i was trying to upload photos, but kept falling asleep, so i had a headache and couldn’t see right. i took a shower. whilst in the shower, my stomach started to feel bad. really really bad. i spent the next hour and a half (i think) sitting on the toilet with the garbage can in front of me trying to talk myself off the puking fit. fortunately, i didn’t blow out my bloodvessels in the eyeballs. i woke up with a sore throat and a funny stomach. not haha funny. gah. i think i just can’t eat pineapple, as much as i love it, the acid does bad things to me. i have such a lame stomach. sheesh.

off to update. go…now!
xo
n.

i was very excited to realize that i am in the handspun fix gallery! how cool is that? i will blog more, i swear, i have been a bit out of it lately. later, i promise.

xo
n.

i updated some new fancy yarns if ya wanna check it out…atluxe.etsy.com…wanna see some of the stuff? well, okay…

lotsa coils, lotsa flowers. i can’t help it. it’s spring! it’s spring! woooo hoooo! i am so excited. it is rumoured to get up to 70 degrees to-morrow!

i packed up orders and swaps that are incredibly behind (i am such a dud) and listed some stuff. i have baaaad cramps that make me feel like i made crap my pants or puke, hard to tell which, so i am in bed on the massager, which helps a lot. i have more to update, including batts and loose fiber that i dyed, so check back over the next day or two, okay?

not much else to report. my studio is a huuuuge mess so i NEED to make time to clean it up so i can actually work in there. it is hard to be in there when it is so gross. i attempted to watch a couple of movies whilst spinning this weekend, one ended up being poopy and dubbed in english from french…arrrgh. so i didn’t watch it. the other was a scifi movie that was so annoying that i turned it off almost the whole way through. sigh.

one of jake’s oldest friends came over on saturday with his 9 year old daughter. she and i worked on crafty stuff, she learned to do a crocheted chain stitch and slip knot and made a bracelet and necklace for her best friend and for herself. she kept calling crochet “lachey” which cracked me up. ala nick lachey. or nick crochet, as he is known in the yarn world. hee!

wanna see pavel’s new house?

off like a dirty shirt…
n.

we hung out with butter and his new girlfriend on friday, and i was really glad that she was really nice and intelligent. i tend to not do so well meeting girlfriends. let’s leave it at that. i think this one went fairly well.

i woke up saturday and was just exhausted. i tried to push myself to do work anyway, i did 3 bobbins of singles on the electric, strung a million flowers and pompoms for plying and then pushed myself to go in the studio and finish a custom order yarn, and literally by the end of the bobbin, my legs were cramped and i had to push to finish it up. i was incredibly frustrated with myself, but that was it. i did what i could. i was supposed to pack orders, but i was out of the tyvek envelopes i use, or the flat rate boxes, all i have is a big one or a really small one. so i couldn’t do orders, which was fine, because i was too tired to do it, really. so jake got groceries. and made dinner. he is a sweet boy. anytime i get exhausted like that, i get depressed about things. not about being sick, but just other things. i decided that i would like to have some people over for a tea and knitting or crafting, spinning lesson if you fancy (i have 2 manual wheels and an electric and i love teaching.) so any of you that live nearby, let me know and we can start organizing.

today, i feel a bit better, although i didn’t sleep well and had freaky dreams about a cupboard in my mom’s house that has the candy in it, and i was looking for peppermint crisps, which is an awesome south african candy that is thin shards of peppermint in chocolate. i love mint and chocolate, anyway, i opened a box up and live crabs came out. and then i started freaking out trying to get them into the box they came out of. it was creepy. anyone know what the hell that meant? maybe it means that if you try to take your mom’s foreign chocolate stash, you may get crabs? and my family never eats seafood, only fish. and my mom rarely cooked fish either because she thought it stunk. although when we cook fresh fish, it doesn’t. but anyway. we never had stuff like that.

on best week ever they were saying that jennifer hudson from dream girls is the girl you want to just be friends with because she is not “hot” like beyonce, and said that about other people that are gorgeous, but regular sized women, and i got so furious. has anyone noticed that most models are not actually…pretty? skinny? yes. the face? not so important. similarly with many actresses and other stars. they are considered “hot” or “sexy” even if they are not actually terribly attractive. thin…yes, that is all that matters. talented? that doesn’t really matter either. and then, if you are too thin, which is the difference between the olsen twin that is 100 lbs, and the one that is 90 lbs…well, then, you are gross. let me go on to say that in college, i got chubby. after college, i got even chubbier. i went on the atkins diet and literally lost my taste for food. i was going through some bad stuff, and i think it was the only thing i could control, and control, i did. i found that once you totally cut out any carbs or sugars, you don’t want them. nothing tempts you. i have never had a great appetite. if it isn’t really good, i won’t eat it. and i don’t eat much, i pick. somehow, i am still chubby. anyway, i got skinnier than i have ever been, i am short and have a small frame (about 5′2) and i got down to a bit more than 100 lbs, a size 2 or 4. i loved it. i felt awesome. and guys went nuts over me. i remembered the same guys that didn’t give me a second glance and anyone that gave me that vibe, i told to screw off. i never forgot it. it bothers me so much that i am critical of other people’s bodies. my gran and mom are, as well. and it just sucks. i look at the fashion models with their creepy 11 year old boy bodies, and i wonder how that has become the ideal. and don’t get me wrong, for the people who are naturally skinny, they have their own kind of beauty that does not add or take away from anyone else’s, but that is not the same as people starving themselves because the media has so much to say about anyone that is not super thin that they develop issues. anyway. it really upset me to see the incredibly ugly comedians on best week ever making those kinds of comments about women that were in fact drop dead gorgeous. i imagine that when they look in the mirror they are the new 007? or look like a sesame street character.

barbe and i are hoping to do a podcast this week. we are thinking that we will make it shorter…what do you guys think of that? was it too long? be honest. we are new at this.

we are going to check out new mattresses today. ours is beat and we are crippled when we wake up or turn over. anyone who has gotten a really good mattress recently, leave a comment and let me know what you got and what you thought of it. i am excited! it has been far too long.

i should be updating luxe.etsy.com later today, proably around 6p, so check in, okay? i didn’t get a chance to do more batts, but there are some gorgeous targhee ones still available, plus the henny penny ones, which are crazy carded with lots of fun stuff in there. i have loads of fiber dyed up for new batts, plus i just got in a bunch of locks to dye that will be available, probably by the ounce. i have had some issues with my dyes being really pastelly, so i think the dye batches may be too old. although, i will use em up anyway, and just not plan for them to be bright. they still come out really pretty. i am a color junkie, so i am pretty open to whatever comes out…

i have been working on some embroideries of drawings i have done, of the strange plants i was drawing a while ago. i want to do some mixed media pieces with similar drawings. i really adore them. i like the feather ones, too. i know i posted them before, i but i will post em again for any new peeps….

i really enjoy the repetition of embroidery my drawings, although i am now realizing from starting some of them that i need to enlarge them. i do them on vintage linens. i am never sure how to frame the, although, it might be fine just in a plain frame under glass. suggestions? most all of the embroideries are on vintage linens with lacy edges, so i can’t just stretch it, you know? i would prefer not to pay 200 bucks to have it framed pro, either.

oh, for some reason, on my yahoo account, i have been getting penis enlargement/viagra and the like/local horny slut spams. the same ones everyday but from a different fake name. anyone else have this problem? my penis really is big enough.

this morning i watched a movie called duma about a boy and a cheetah that was really a sweet movie. it would be suitable for kids, and for catlovers. and has a happy ending. cheetah gets a lady cheetah.

okay, off i go.
xo
n.

well! if you haven’t seen the now famous “bunny foo foo” yarn, here it is…and it is sold, i am sorry. i am going to go in search for more of these beads which were from a children’s easter jewelry set from last year…so…but anyway, i spun all of the scraps of roving end to end overlapping a bit and then plied these in. there is a plain matching skein too. i have other ones going up to-morrow, also that are just gorgeous. no “plain” ones in the batch. so check in around suppertime to-morrow and then again sunday for yarns and spinning batts. i have dyed up soooooo much loose fiber lately that there should be some really good batts to fill the luxe.etsy.com shop. and it is all combined shipping, $4.05 no matter what you buy, so let’s just say that i send priority and insure them so i pay more than that…okay…yarn photos…let me say, i am loving the new photo toys. so fun. and it makes my blog look fancy!

so in the one sandy colored one, i have a ton of little mother of pearl shell beads all through it that are just gorgeous. it is such a nice soft beachy yarn….if you had your own island in the caribean kind of island. and then more batts, for sure. also, i have lots of loose fiber and different kinds of locks, which i think i might dye and sell by the ounce, i have had lots of questions about it. so. ask and you will recieve. also, i am going to write up some patterns to include with yarns orders so people know what they can make, if they need it.

we went out to dinner with the sweet butta and his new girlfriend who was a really cool girl. i would hang out with her. she was really really nice, intelligent, together and easy to talk to. i have a hard time meeting girlfriends because i have a history of them hating me, this may be my first really good experience! i fear we bored her because we aren’t terribly exciting and i tried my best not to speak of knitting, or fiber, art or any other stuff that she would likely have no interest in and then my eyes glaze over and i am not listening to anyone while they weep and rip their hair out bored out of their skulls. so then…i am not sure what to talk about. despite that, it was fun.

my laptop has to go to the shop to get something fixed and i really need to send it in soon. here is the problem…in the 2 weeks or more that they will be fixing it, i will have no computer. i found some websites that sell refurbished macs that are pretty cheap (as low as 300 bucks) and i only need to know that it can load photos and do fast uploads for the internet stuff, otherwise, i don’t use it much. email, photos, maybe the podcast stuff, minimal though. so i need to call the place and talk to one of the geeks and ask what i could get for cheap that could do all of that. and then, it is always nice to have a fallback computer anyway. if anyone has a working laptop that has wireless capabilities that would be interested in leasing it to me for a couple of weeks, or selling it for cheap, let me know. again, if uploading stuff on the internet would take forever, no dice. i looked into renting one, and it starts at 250 bucks a week! wha? starts at, so i imagine it is way more than that even. i realized that i could get a refurb one, or open box one from these online places for a few hundred bucks, but i don’t know if they are fast enough for the stuff i do. i know nothing. shameful nothing. i was impressed though, they give you a 1 year warranty thru mac, and 90 days from them. some of them are just completely made from spare parts, all new parts, but spare parts and are way cheaper.

i loved the input on the fashion post. i was a bit scared that i had ranted too much and someone would jump on me or something but what i guess i realized is that fashion used to be glamorous, you know? it seems like around the early 1960’s bad bad things started happenning and never stopped. everything that i like was from the 50’s or earlier. things that took into consideration that we have hips and thighs and boobs and stomachs and other stuff, too, and that things needed to show that off and make our curves look good. back then, even big girls could buy fashionable clothes that made them look sexy. now, fashion is only for the very thin, if you are not 6 feet tall and 100 pounds, it would be frightening. and even on the models, it doesn’t look so good. it really is almost as though fashion is from people who hate women. clearly, they hate the female form. what flatters a 11 year old boy is not what flatters a woman. pretty much across the board.

part of my mania had to do with the full-moon. i get craaaaazy everytime and i never know why. and pms always creeps up on me too, and i am unaware of why i feel so irritable. part of it is the insane amount of money that is wasted on shite. they want and like it because someone told them to. because j-lo wears it, or whatever. and then, you have a nervous breakdown, or get heavier or whatever and they all turn on you and it really upsets me. they are like vultures. i have attempted to be friends with people who turned out to be this way….they are around you to steal attention and style cues (how scary is that?) and if you want, they buy it, etc, and do it with other people, and when that person falls from their high pedestal, they are happy to step over them. it is sad. and the clothes that they had to have that were 3,000 for some ugly mini jacket, garbage. last season. i don’t know why you would want to live like that? i would want things that i will love forever. i love the 30-50’s and anytime i am dressed up, i tend to wear something in that vain. i have always liked that kind of thing. how can anyone be so damn fickle?

okay, i am getting tired and grouchy, so i am going to go.i had bad nightmares and felt awful this morning, so i didn’t sleep so well.

barbe’s phone and internet are sketchy at the mo, so i might try to do a podcast on my end, we will see what happens. i will talk to barbe about it to-morrow to see if i could get the recording thing and tape us from my end.

i know there was more i wanted to say, but…
xo
n.