Queen of the Universe

When one is sick around our house you become, Queen of the Universe. That means nothing you say or do can be held against you. Well, I started upchucking last Friday, and although I think my last episode was last night, one never knows. I think it was stress, a bad pump set and a virus trying literally to kill me (diabetes + insulin dependent diabetes = DKA or near death). SO rough week or so and I haven't blogged.

First off thank you to BAM my SP10, who turns out to Bethanie Ann Franks and I love her blog and have lots of questions, which I will email later. She has been such an inspiring spoiler. I made a felted bowl that holds most of the smaller stuff and hopefully now that Adam has returned we will get a photo of all her lovely swag. I promise another blog in a couple days oozing about her greatness.

Our house is excited about a bunch of stuff coming up, first off Harry Potter Movie, Cat Bordhi's sock book, Harry Potter book, kyphoplasty and doctors appointments, and the fourth of July. Lots to do in July.

And I need to go to sleep, I wonder how long I will remain Queen of the Universe.... I am beginning to like it, so I suspect not long.

He can't sing "Behind Blue Eyes" anymore!

Jason chose hazel green for his eye color last month

His green eyes are more "real" than the baby blues, I keep looking at him and thinking he looks different, "Oh yeah, the eyes!" Tony did such a great job painting them, they do the hazel color change trick, they bring out the varying hues depending on his clothing. Of course many new questions arise from this color change. When people ask about the eye color, where did he get it, from Mom or Dad ? The half kidding answer is, "My mother in law." Although his color choice was "Captain Kirk hazel, since he got all the space babes." Tony actually looked at my iris to model on, there is something a little off about looking into your husband's eyes, only to see your own. All of us kids have hazel eyes just like my mom. So I will try not to think about the incestuous nature of the new eye color.

More things that could wind yarn.

So I threw out the question of how to make a ball winder to a group of knitters. So far we have use kids, the little ones in my life won't sit still that long. I think felting in a wading pool is more their speed. Other ideas have included using a treadmill or bike. Which I like, my dad hooked a bike up to a generator once and if we wanted TV that summer we had to ride the bike. So if I want yarn neatly balled then I have to earn it on a bike or treadmill. Doesn't that defeat the laziness of not wanting to roll from a dresser drawer?

American Inventor

Dang it, first my automated video rental kiosk in the grocery store, and now my mixer for a ball winder. I'll have to stay with knitting "willy warmers" for American Inventor. Just google <"willy warmer">, for those who require description, the gay knitter guy choose a peach fleshy color and yeah, he gives the pattern, and it's exactly what it sounds like. The blogger states that they are used for wearing kilts, answering yet another lifelong mystery for some. But I doubt the judges of Inventor are reading knitting blogs so they might think this is a real invention. Or is this as bad as not being able to carry a tune and auditioning for Idol. Perhaps I should get some sleep, I hear that deprivation could cause one to have implausible ideas. Nite Nite.

Kitchen Aid Magic

http://geocachingknitter.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html


It already exists, I googled someone who googled someone else. Directions are pretty simple, a dough hook and a paper tube.

Knitting with a KitchenAid stand mixer:
Faced with winding 30 some skeins of Jamieson & Smith 2 ply jumper weight into center pull skeins, I decided to search the web for an easier method than a swift and a hand cranked ball winder. Not wanting to pay for an electric winder, DH and I figured out there had to be a way to attach a small motor to the ball winder. NOT! So what other small motors were in the house that allowed a circular wind motion? Why an electric mixer of course!!! Having had surgery for carpal tunnel once, I prefer to save the hand motions for knitting rather than winding.
Google search brought up these sites from knitters who already had the idea:http://www.figandplum.com/archives/000365.html using a hand held mixerhttp://geocities.com/mama_bear_007/ using a stand mixer
So out came the Kitchen Aid mixer with the dough hook. I found that cutting a 4" square of lightweight cardboard, taping it into a tube and slipping it over the dough hook worked perfectly. There were no empty cardboard cylinders in the house at the moment but I will save some paper towel cardboard. I think they would be even better than thinner cardboard tubes.The first couple of skeins were a bit comical as they looked more like children's tops than balled yarn but what the heck. It saved a lot of hand winding. Kitchen Aid stand mixer run on motor speed 6 balled a skein of yarn in about 45 seconds.
Lesson learned - Google is your friend.

And my aspirations as an inventor are crushed... I may have to try this. I have a elementary school teacher buddy who saves everything, I am sure she has toilet paper tubes. While unhappy that it's not original, I think tomorrow will be fun. And I can hardly wait until J asks, "What the heck is a mixer doing in the bedroom honey?" He wants to hear fresh whipped cream, he is going to be really confused with "making yarn balls".

Speaking of Moebius...

So I find tying a bow tie to be horrendous for my honey and I. It takes a great deal of fussing. and the clip-ons look cheap, why bother? What about a moebius to create a faux bow tie with the twist and the openings on the ends, I can picture it, I can't describe it. The idea comes from the necklace in Cat Bordhi's Treasury of Magical Knitting series. Perhaps it won't look like an average bow tie, but it could look very modern, simple to wear and with felting even survive a night of gigging without the sag. Knit Picks has a pattern for a father's day bow tie... hmmm. I can try that first to moisten the parched brain cells, then try my idea. If the moebius is a failure of design, I'll just put it on the ogre shelf and laugh at it, perhaps call it a headband since the sock that went bad was pink, perhaps it is a lady ogre I making unique items for!!!!

Is it bad when you make a moebius out of a hank?

So without a ball winder and swift ... I have lots of hanks to wind. I found my top dresser drawer and a toilet paper tube work quite well for the occaisional roll. However, now I am wishing for something a bit more BOND (as in James). A high tech toy to wind my yarn. So I am imagining an attachment to my kitchen aid (instead of the usesless: ice cream maker, sausage maker, pasta roller or orange juicer) I want a automatic skein winding attachment. This seems to me to be a simple matter of re-purposing. Do you think we could convince the company to lower American cholesterol and assist weight loss by encouraging knitters? Imagine making a batch of low fat cookies while winding your yarn. Yep, sounds like perfection to me! For those not fortunate enough to have the mixer ( I inheirited mine from my grandma, it's 40 years old and the attachments are still designed to work with it, talk about legacy inclusion!) How about this... a bobbin fitter, it would go over the bobbin maker on the sewing machine and would wind the yarn same as it does thread. Any other nutty ideas?
Suzi