Molly Bee's Attic

Here is a shot of the little paper lanterns I made for Chinese New Year at work-20 of 'em. As per usual with my projects, they were a lot more futzy and time consuming than I thought they'd be, but they were fun. Something different, but I wouldn't do it every year. I went to Charity Knitting at The Ear on Monday night and started this scarf. It's the Irish Hiking Scarf pattern that's all over the web. I think I'm the last one to jump on the train to make it. It's a great pattern though. Once it's established, you don't need the pattern any more. It's easy to just look at the fabric and see what to do. It's made out of Caron soft acrylic. I had originally bought the yarn because I thought it would make a good tan scarf for a guy I know, but when I got it home, I realized it had a little too much pink in it to be masculine. It's fun to knit something on size 8 needles so that you can see it grow quickly. My boss is a die hard Steelers fan....

I finally bit the bullet and dyed! Mad City Mike inspired me to try Kool Aid dying a while back so today I tried it out and LOVED it! It was so easy! Wash the yarn (My angora goat hair hand spun. Consensus says it's called MOHAIR .) Mix up the Kool Aid Put the yarn in Micro 2 minutes, let cool. Micro two minutes, let cool. Do this a third time if you see any color left in the water. Wash, rinse hang to dry! I spent most of the day with Friend-Anne on Sat. We met at the Sow's Ear in the morning. We knit, sipped hot chocolate, and had a lovely visit. Then we went to Culver's where more visiting commenced. Then we each ran errands separately and met up again at Star Cinema for the last matinee of the day of 'Ink Heart'. Friend-Anne's son had just gotten his brown belt in Karate so Anne's family asked me to go to the movie with them to celebrate . (It was WONDERFUL! Don't listen to the reviews and GO!) Then we went to dinner afterward and I didn't get ...

The match was doomed from the start. The boy was 4 years old and weighed 40 pounds. The dog was nearly three and weighed 80. The rope was a foot and a half long and was very sturdy. The boy, undaunted, offered the dog the rope. The dog considered the boy, then the rope, then the boy. Then he gently took the rope and tugged tentatively. The boy, though small, was tenacious; pulled back...refused to let go, so the dog proceeded to drag the boy's giggling body all around the house until those present were certain that his tiny shirt would burst into flames from static electricity and rug burn. The dog and the boy finally wore each other out (more so the dog than the boy) so they curled up on the sofa (with the dog graciously sharing his woobie with the boy) and watched a movie together. The End. Too Cute For Words... For those of you keeping score at home. This is the third completed pair of socks! In the process of finishing them, I found yet one more unfinished pair so will work o...

Every once in a while, Mother Earth gets a bug up her butt and decides to give us a taste of what will happen if we don’t cease and desist our evil ways and stop abusing her. She takes a deep breath, exhales mightily, and creates weather conditions that are downright inhospitable to human life… Often, my body gets a bug up its butt (literally) and also created conditions not conducive to a worthwhile existence for a few days… And sometimes…when the stars align just so…these events happen simultaneously, creating a couple of days that are so far off the Suck Scale that they blow the Suckometer to smithereens ; needles and gauges, glass shards and molten metal, small particulates and great gelatinous globules of flaming Suck everywhere!!!! I had two fun-filled days when all I could do was curl up in the fetal position and whimper. Now I’m on the mend, and in that state where you’re so deliriously thankful to NOT be so miserable that you enter the realm of ‘ Opposite Land’ . This, for ...

Oh. My. God. I've been threatening to spin up some angora goat pencil roving that a coworker sent me from her hobby farm in California. I finally did yesterday. I didn't prep it at all. I didn't pull it. I just fed it into Mabel as it came and Oh. My. God. I never want to spin anything but pencil roving every again! Where it takes me a couple of weeks of pretty concentrated effort to prep, spin and ply sock weight yarn, I was able to spin all of the pencil roving I had in about 90 minutes. It was so soothing, and rhythmic, just feeding it in and feeding it in and feeding it in. Bliss. Zen. Sigh. I planned to KoolAid dye it today. I've never dyed before. I have three bobbins full of singles. I'm not going to ply it; j ust dye it and knit it into mittens. I think they'll be really soft and warm. But instead of staying home to do it, I had a case of the blues. so I went to The Ear for the afternoon to visit and knit mini mittens. I got this week's pair done...

I'm working from home today. I have a ton of computer projects to do and the roads are slippery so I decided to just hunker down and push through here. I can really cruise on the projects when I'm not running around like a head-challenged barnyard fowl like I usually am at work. Ben, however is no help at all. He misses Grammie and is perturbed that I am disrupting his normal morning nap schedule. He finally couldn't take it anymore and curled up on the couch with his buddy, Mini Me. Speaking of Grammie. She called last night to inform me that she fell down the cellar stairs and messed up her ankle yesterday. See, this apple doesn't fall far from the tree! Thank goodness she had her puffy winter coat on and was a little insulated other wise the damage could have been much worse. She thinks it's sprained or maybe broken and I spent a good deal of time this morning trying to get her to see the doctor today but I'm not sure I succeeded. She's one tough cookie. ...

(*Crickets chirping* *Tumbleweeds rolling by*.) Is there anyone here? Or is it just me? Oh. It's just me. Boy! Sure is quiet and lonely around these parts! I took The Queen Bee to the airport this morning so she could make her sojourn Back East. She called me and said that despite the fact that they sat on the ground for an hour in Detroit to be de-iced, she still made it back to Bangor right on time. Said they had a heckuva tail wind. Musta had in order to shave an hour off their time! We had THE BEST visit, my Mum and I. It was very low key and we just did what we wanted when we wanted. I worked some but had a lot of days off too so we slept in late, watched movies, put puzzles together, shopped, cooked and played games. And Talked. And Talked. And Talked. Well I talked. As most of you know... generally speaking, I'm... generally speaking. My Mum is one of the wisest women I know. She has empathy and smarts and knows how to listen and when to dispense wisdom. I don't kn...

Just a quicky today...just wanted to get these pics out here before I forgot them. Mum and I rung in the New Year (and her birthday on 1/30) with three Maine lobsters. We ate them up before I remembered to take a picture so here is the box that they came in complete with kelp that managed to squirt all over my kitchen! There has been spinning. I finally got the orange and yellow singles that have been sitting on Mabel for ten months of Sundays plied. It came out pretty good. I was afraid it was just going to be a murky orange (and it kinda looks like it in this picture) but up close it is pretty defined reds, yellows and oranges. I wish I would have spun it thicker (It's sock weight) the colors would have made a great Knitty Fish hat! There has also been knitting. I whipped these up for the tenants next door. I ran into the man for the first time the other day and he asked me if the baby was bothering me. I didn't even know what he meant. Apparently there is a brand new fou...