Molly Bee's Attic

Another wild week at Chez Bee. But not particularly woolly until this weekend. I've had a touch of labrynthitis for the last week ( yet another new and exciting remnant of the virus from H-E-Double Hockey Sticks. The gift that just keeps on giving ) and there is something about watching my needles that made my head spin. It only just got better enough on Saturday afternoon for me to work a little but but after a couple of hours I was more than ready to put it away again. Ben's tummy clock has been telling him it's breakfast time earlier and earlier with the days getting longer and all. He soundly thumped my evil plan to sleep in until 7:30 on Saturday morning. He woke me up with his pathetic squeaking at 5:55. I got up and went to the bathroom. By the time I got back he was sitting on my pillow. Sigh. So I hit the ground running and did laundry (mostly bedding to get the dog butt off it) and other feats of domestic wizardry and had the nest whipped into shape by 9:30. Gro...

I'm sure you all know this, but occassionally it bears repeating. All dogs on the planet are MINE . Due to space and time restrictions, I assign stewards and keep them in different places around the globe. This is Brinkley. I keep him in Minneapolis with my friends, The Brownes. He's a sweetheart who's very camera curious so I have lots of photos taken down the barrel of his nose. This is Sophie and Max. ( Can't find Max? Look UNDER Sophie .) I keep them at my brother and sister-in-law's house in Illinois. Sophie's sweatshirt says DGG (Dog Gone Gorgeous!) I think these two are the cat's pajamas! These are my boxer-cuddle-buds, Dakota, Nevada, and Murphy. I keep them at friend Joe's house in Monticello. This is us catching up and ringing in 2010 in a big dogpile on New Year's Eve. This is Topanga. I keep her upstairs with my friends Mike and Mike so she gets to come visit me often. Here we are having one of our lengthy girl-to-girl heart-to-hearts....

I held a Spin In on Saturday. Lynn, Elizabeth , Jen and Mary came by before lunch. We started out with snacks and copious amounts of tea and then began the spinning and knitting. Jen was the Drop Spindle Diva: She even Navajo plied some at the end of the day. ON THE DROP SPINDLE. I know. The very concept made my head hurt too! Elizabeth and Lynn worked the wheels" Lynn Elizabeth And Mary plied the needles: After a bit, we took a break and went to lunch at Joey's Seafood . I highly recommend this place. Their scallops are YUM! You can imagine what kind of group we were; our waiter, 'Tyler' came to our table and the first thing he said was. "Well, THIS looks like trouble." Once again our reputation precedes us! We came back after lunch and started in again. We put Bridget Jones' Diary in the DVD player so at least I was way less productive what with Colin Firth on and all. I must have gotten something done because my hands started to ache and I put up...

I'm having some folks over on Saturday for a spin in. This melty time of year always reminds be of maple syrup season back home-thus the 'Sugar Camp Spin In' was born. We're meeting around 10:00am, spinning, going out to lunch, spinning all afternoon, ordering takeaway for supper and spinning some more. I can't wait! I've always winged it when it came to spinning. I'm self taught so am looking forward to picking the brains of the more seasoned spinners who will be coming over. Rumor has it, someone may even spot me as I try Navajo plying again. I nearly strangled myself last time. I need professional help....in oh so many different ways. I spent a couple of hours processing some beautiful roving I got at The Sheep and Wool Festival in Jefferson this fall into pencil roving. It's 100% Bluefaced Leicester from River's Edge Weaving Studio. Here's a little roving porn for you; Mmmmmm .... Soft as feathers Yum! I KNOW right? It's MY color! Mel...

Heh ! That got your attention eh? I had TWO Valentines over last night. Am I a play-ah or what? I invited friends, Joe and Steve, over for lasagna for supper. They arrive at 6:00PM: Joe: ( thrusting a beautiful plant into by hands ) "Happy Valentine's Day! It's a Chlamydia !" Steve: NO! NO! It's a Cyclamen! CY- CLA -MEN! The plant (and that exchange) was the PERFECT Valentine gift! It was fun to spend time with the guys again. We had supper, played games, had peanut butter pie and watched "Meet The Fockers ". It's always nice to see them. They make me believe that maybe there are still 'nice' guys out there somewhere. Today I went to breakfast with D at the The Pancake Cafe. What a zoo. Remind me not to go there on the weekends again! Sheesh ! But breakfast was great as was catching up with my old friend. I watched the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. I LOVED the 'Aboriginal People of Canada' thing (other than the NBC announcer who...

The East Coast is claiming we must be closing in on The End Times since it hasn’t snowed this many inches in some of those areas since records started being kept. I scoffed, thinking them wussies for thinking The End Was Nigh over a few inches of frozen rain. Then this morning I was awoken by an EARTHQUAKE and I’m beginning to think that the Right Hand Coasters may be onto something! About 1 minute before 4:00 AM Ben started whimpering and whining. I got it together enough to ask him what was wrong and then the shaking started. It was a 4-point-something centered in DeKalb, IL so it wasn’t much, but I live in the dead-solid-center of the upper Midwest, not exactly earthquake territory, so it was definitely notable! Immediately after the shaking stopped, Ben turned around 3 times, threw himself down on the bed, sighed heavily and went back to sleep. I took that to mean that the worst was over and yet, I laid awake for another two hours until the alarm went off. No aftershocks. Interes...

Sweet Willie Browne is an exceptional child. He solved the communication problem we were having when I visited and has also found a cure for the common cold! I got this directive from him earlier this week when I was a little under the weather. I'm all better now! The child is a genius I tell you! And a cuter genius there never was. I splurged and got myself a think pad mini lap top thingie (that's it's technical name) just before I went to Minneapolis last weekend. I was inspired to do so after watching Dale Harriet and her faithful companion 'Hermine' at Knit Night. So handy. So cute. So wee. To demonstrate what my friends call my ' Amish-ness ', I didn't turn it on first thing. No, instead I ran around playing "Let's See Its Size In Relationship To This' for 15 minutes before I settled in with it. Here are my favorites. Small size navel orange. Next to the 'lap top' I bought for William I've only had it a week and have h...

Here are some pics of the anklets I designed. The yarn is Socks That Rock. I used sterling silver beads and a "I Love To Knit" charm that hangs down in the front. The yarn detracts from the beads. I would use a solid in the future. I used the method of adding beads where you don't have to string them all on first.(You may be able to see the charm if you biggify it.) Now it's time to crawl back to the couch. I heb a code en my node.

Well, Groundhog Day 2010 started with violence. I got up just before sunrise, looked out the window and saw my neighbor crouched over the groundhog hole with his Maglight torch trying to get an early indicator of what the rodent's prediction would be. The beam from the Mag was the next thing to halogen and lit up the neighborhood. I ran out in my robe and slippers and soundly beat him about the head and torso with a Louisville Slugger I keep at my bedside for just such purposes. He's not angry at me. He knows that the beating he would have gotten by causing a shadow with that darned light thus heralding 6 more weeks of winter would have been much worse! BTW. It worked. Sun Prairie's own Jimmy The Ground Hog did not see his shadow. YAY! Only a month and a half more winter instead of 6 weeks!!!

If you guys thought I was proud of myself when I conquered driving in downtown Madison, you should see me now. I made it safely there and back again to visit my friends, the Brownes , up in Minneapolis. I'm positively obnoxious with power!!! Look out Chicago, you are next in line to be my b**ch! The ride up was interesting. Ben and I saw bald eagles in Sauk City, scores of deer in the fields along the highway, awesome sandstone structures and every rest area between here and there. The girl and the dog, they need lottsa pee-breaks doncha know. One of us drank A. LOT. of diet Coke on the way! Some of the waysides had cool features like this ode to the Passenger Pigeon... And a cool sculpture homage to Wisconsin's Law Enforcement... The five hour highway driving was a cinch! I only got lost when I was about 3 blocks from the Browne's house. They live in a lovely neighborhood. I investigated it thoroughly...for quite some time. But I made it. Here's proof. This here...

It's been a busy week or so at Chez Bee. Nothing earth shattering; just seem to be in constant motion, putzing and stuff. My big thing last week was purchasing a beautiful new set of bedding ( flannel sheets, comforter, shams, pillows, and dust ruffle) on Monday with some money Mum gave me for Christmas. Every night is like sleeping in a fancy inn! You can't tell by this pic but it's plum and gold. Friday night I went to dinner with friend D. We ambled on over to Frugal Muse afterward to kill some time before going to see Sherlock Holmes at Point. I have a serious addiction to books. Looking at the shelves with D. I couldn't believe how many of the titles I've read...and were I still a book purchaser, I would have left the store with more tomes than a dozen men could carry and a much lighter pocketbook. Thanks Goodness for the Dane County Library system. Harriet may try to kill me on occasion , but it sure is cheaper to borrow than to buy when you cruise through...

I had decided over Christmas that I was going to take the month of February and 'Finish It February' and complete all of the half done projects I have laying around. I had the flu last week and a LOT of down time so once I felt like I could get myself in a sitting position, I grabbed the purple socks...and finished them: By then I was feeling better enough to spin a little so I set to plying the natural brown wool singles that have been sitting on my wheel for far too long: And finished that...It's SOFT, chocolate brown, lace weight with a sprinkling of white. It's hard to tell from the photo. Then I set my sights on the Ninja Death Scarf and finished THAT! Despite the possible danger associated with the actually wearing of this scarf, I managed to bend it, and then I made Ben model it. At first he looked all around... ....in case any of his buddies might be lurking. Didn't want to take a chance on them laughing, name calling, and barring him from playing in any do...