Fuzzy Feet--Before

Here I had such a drowsy night at work last night and I vowed to go straight to bed upon returning home...and then I sat up in my chair and finished my pair of Fuzzy Feet. I wanted to quick throw them in the washer before I hit the sack, but oh yeah, my neighbors were washing clothes as usual. All day. Constantly. Ceaseless. Nonstop. I also wanted to post a picture of them before the storm hits. We were lucky enough earlier in the week to not lose power, but I'm told that this storm is supposed to be even worse. My new fuzzy feet would have been a nice thing to wear but apparently it was not to be. Oh well, I'll be at work during the worst of it anyway. I needed to make a new pair for myself since I finally wore through my old ones without knowing it. I was walking around on the carpet with them on, and then stepped onto the linoleum of my kitchen and "Whooooooey!" There were some rather large holes and thereby cold spots on my feet! I can't wait to see how they will felt!

Goodies

I bought this lovely skein of recycled viscose yarn at the Yarn Garden the other day and then of course had to yik yak with the gal who runs the shop. We got to talking about Irish and English knitting styles and she mentioned that she was trying to get a gal, "who was originally from Norway and has a yarn shop down in Ames," to come and teach a class up here, to which I replied, "ARNHILD?!?". Arnhild is of course Arnhild Hillesland of Arnhild's Knitting Studio fame and I was THRILLED to hear this! I have never met the woman, although I have been to Ames to visit The Rose Tree Fiber Shop, but when I asked native Ames people about directions to Arnhild's, no one seemed to know about it and in fact doubted it's very existance. And I can of course snakke litt norsk so I would be doubly thrilled to meet her and just be in her presence, let alone LEARN something from her! So that was, needless to say, a red letter day.

I also dinked around making some swell stitch markers like I see on all my favorite blogs. I have a buttload of Czech glass beads that I bought on my last pilgrimage to Europe, but after taking stock of my bead inventory, I realized I really didn't have that many firelamp beads like the markers I've seen before. I did try to "Make Do and Mend" and produced a few that I was happy with. I will have to keep an eye out for sales on firelamp beads from now on. I made 3 different sizes: the smallest will fit up to size 4, the midsized ones will fit up to size 10.5, and the largest will fit up to size 13 needles. These will be divided up between myself, my mother and Melissa. I used up some abalone shell pieces, some acorn charms, some 'handmade' charms, some eggplant beads, and some adventurine beads I've been hoarding in my stash. They weren't that tricky and I'm quite pleased with them. I plan on making a lot more of these! :)

Valentines Day: The Revenge

My prayers were answered and I was flexed tonight...but after 2300. I walked home and nearly froze my bum off, sat and enjoyed The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, did some knitting, and got around to making those Valentine bath bombs. I made a triple batch from Not Martha's recipe and got 9 hearts, 1 round, and 1 runt out of it. I used the last of my orange lily fragrance oil and cut up some angel wing botanicals for decoration--no glitter this time. While I was measuring, I remembered I have quite a lot of loose chammomile tea that I could use as an additive! It is supposed to be very good for the skin and hair, but I'm afraid it would gunk up the tub too much. On the other hand, Lush does recommend putting the bomb inside an old stocking if it's full of twigs and other such botanicals. If I used chammomile, what fragrance to pair with it? Hmmmm. I'll have to think about that. And I must admit, I was a bit nervous about how these would unmold, but they popped right out! I didn't grind up the epsom salt with my mortar and pestle this time either. It was coarse and straight out of the bag but it made no difference in the molding process. Now all my girlfriends can take smelly baths! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

Here are the Brit treats I got for myself up in the Twin Cities, and here are the treats I baked for my family! I was going to whip up a batch of heart shaped bath bombs for girlfriend gifts this morning after work, but last night was a "helluva day at sea" so I'm heading for bed! Happy Heart Day!