Well, this isn't ideal.

I'm getting like 30 minutes less sleep on a daily basis.  If htis continues, in very short order, I will have given up sleep full stop.

Related:  Due to increased lack of sleep, I've really ramped up my caffeine consumption.  I LOVE COFFEE.

I got up at 4:30 this morning but not out of bed until 4:52.  I made delicious coffee and started my day.

Two cups in, husband killed the pot and made the next one using the cheap coffee he prefers.  My third and fourth cups of coffee were less delicious.

Side note:  I'm doing a self taper on depression and anxiety meds because they don't seem to help me.  I plan to replace this with yoga, meditation and cardio.  I'm all about self care.

On the knitting front, I've been knitting the hell out of the tulip tank but also studying on course from hell 7 of 9.  So weekday knitting is largely out.

I added like 40 podcasts to my follow list and so I'm WAY behind on my listening.  It will probably take about 2 months to fully catch up.

I picked up some roving to spin for Sara's Christmas present.  I'm pretty jazzed to get working on that.  It's going to be random.  I am aiming for light fingering two ply.  I need a better wheel so that i can spin it all laceweight and then ply it to sock or better with a kate.

Crackhead Sleeve

You guys.  I totally made the sleeve.  I'm already starting with the congratulatory self back patting except I still have to make one more just like it.    After that it calls for...

• Joining the back and the fronts at the shoulder.  
• Picking up and knitting the button band and shawl collar
• Joining the back and fronts at the sides
• Joining the sleeves to the vest
• Mattress stitching the sleeves
• Buying wee little buttons
• Sewing on the wee little buttons

Likely dying of cute.   Those bullet points above aren't in the right order. 

This morning, we got a late start, but still headed over to the farmer's market.  On our way to it, we swung by Collectivo where I got a large iced coffee.  Only about 20 ounces but oh so delicious.
Our first stop was Stella's to pick up some Spicy Hot Cheese Bread.  We each had about two good tears of bread when the kid asked that we pick up some cheese curds.  NO PROBLEMO!  He picked out garlic dill curds.

I  noticed that there were two vendors selling wool. Knitting is becoming very vogue.  I'm starting to feel like I'm not special.  Of course I investigated the wool, even though I'm on the worst kind of diet.  A yarn diet.  One was selling only finished naturally dyed wool and one was selling finished wool and some roving.  The roving was pretty itchy and you know I'm too delicate to spin or knit with itchy wool.

 As we went around we also picked up a ton of amazing looking veggies.  We got tomatoes, sweet corn, jalapenos, cucumbers, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans and a kohlrabi.  So this week's food plan is delicious, delicious veggies.

There were tons of street performers playing up and down state street, including someone playing the pan flute!  Ahh Madison, I love you.

After we left the market, we walked through the capitol building.  It was super busy in there. Triggered my anxiety pretty solidly, so I was glad to head out of there.   Then we headed down State Street.  We stopped to watch someone juggling while spinning a hula hoop.  I mean, the coordination is impressive, but the performer that used to occupy that spot was a delightful street magician.  I miss that guy.  On the way back to the car, decided to walk through the Overture Center.  There we checked the upcoming  shows, walked through the museum store (which I love) and then walked through the gallery.  Today's installation was a little highbrow for me, if I'm being honest.


It was getting to be lunchtime, so we were heading to Sol's on the square, which is on the opposite direction from our car, but carrying all the veggies around was kind of a burden so we hopped in the car and put our lovely veggies in the trunk and moved the car to a more favorable parking space for lunch.  At Sol's I had the bibimbap along with the complimentary soup and sides they bring when you order.  I was delighted to learn that all but the fish cakes were vegetarian.  I love their kimchi and cucumbers.  But bibimbap is pretty much my favorite food.  Look how pretty it is.

I was so full from aforementioned cheese curds and cheese bread that I really only ate like 4 bites of my lunch.  I took the rest home and had about half of it for dinner.  The rest will make a fantastic lunch tomorrow!

Heading back to the car after lunch, Deven had to pee pretty urgently, so we dropped into Ancora coffee roasters to use their facilities.  I can never just use a restroom somewhere, so I picked up a pomegranate green iced tea but they accidentally poured me an iced coffee.  I almost said "HEY GUY, EVEN BETTER!"  but it was after noon and if you read much of this blog you will see that I have to be preeeetty careful about my coffee consumption because of insomnia.  So he gave me the iced coffee for the husband and I happily sipped away at my green tea. I get it that green tea has plenty of caffeine on it's own, but humor me here.

So, today was a good day. I mean, I could have used more coffee. I can always use more coffee.  But it was alright, really.

How was your Saturday?

I'm working on it, anyway.

I just got back from visiting my family in the motherland (Iowa.)  Husband couldn't come along with us, but my kid came with me this time.  He enjoyed some quality cousin time.  I hung out with my sisters, drank a lot of beer, said "fuck" a lot and threatened to steal puppies. For reals.  Someday my sister is going to be missing Mavis and I will be up here teaching that adorable little shit to high five when the Badgers score.

I brought some knitting along with me but didn't make a ton of progress.  it was mostly along for the ride. My slump is pretty hard core these days.  I worked a bit on the left front of the baby sweater down there, but otherwise hadn't really made any progress.  Also, I suck at pattern reading so I tore out much of what I worked on over there.

When I got home, my textbooks for course from hell #7 (of 9) came in and all of a sudden I am "KNIT ALL THE TIME!"  Procrastination is a powerful tool.  I'd rather do almost anything rather than work on that class.   for example, I cleaned my kitchen.  So in 4 months when I have to test or die.  I'm going to be filled with regret but I will probably have some finished knitting.  Maybe I will have even finished spinning all that alpaca I have on the every so judgemental yarn bookcase.

With procrastination nipping at my heels over the the past few days, I finished the left front of the baby sweater, finished the right front of the baby sweater, started sleeve #1, accused the pattern designer of crack addiction (I'm pretty sure I'm right about that) and finished my 'Oy With The Socks Already.'  I freaking love them.   BFF gave me the yarn for my birthday.  With friends with taste like that, who even cares if you are getting to be as old as hell.  Bonus for fun yarn named for Gilmore Girls. (yarn is Oy, with the Poodles Already)

Check them out.

I also did some spinning.  I had some yak and something blend roving and I finally turned it into a yarn.  It came out ok, but not great.  I'm super impatient with my progress at spinning.  Here's what the singles looked like.

 My second single was a lot less even than the first for no good reason at all.  Sonofabitch.  It's still on the spool, but here's the plied yarn.  It's a usable yarn for sure, but it's got some serious slubs.  I hate slubs.

This morning, husband and I went to the Farmer's Market while the kid was at a sleepover.  While there, I got a giant iced coffee.  I added half and half which feels like such a luxury after months of 2% in my coffee.  Most places, your large iced beverage is about 20 oz.  This one was at least 28 oz. I love coffee shops with legit large drinks. <3  There is no amount of coffee that, in a single serving, would be likely to be considered too large a portion.

After we retrieved the kid, we headed over to the fair to walk around, eat some junk food, watch some shows.   Fun fact about me.  No thrill shows are ok with me.  There was a motorcycle stunt show.  No lie, watching them jump the ramps, I cried like 6 times.  My brain just says 'Oh man, I'm not here to watch someone die!" so yeah, it's a little intense for me.

It's a good day, I'm sun-burnt to a ridiculous extreme, but when am I not if I've been outside more than 5 minutes?

What did you all do with your Saturday?

This week in my world

This week has been pretty low-key.  I normally work from home, but headed into our office for a farewell lunch with my pals there.  I stopped at Starbucks on the way in and picked up a flat white.  It was ok, but not as good as True's flat white.

I've been working on accidental hat v. 2.0.  I've really got to focus on learning how to Fair Isle, because the knitting looks a little jacked.

I think I would break my knitting rut quicker if I did something that made me look like a secret knitting genius or something.


Goals for the weekend
1) spin all the white wool
2) Navajo ply the white wool
3) get into the second color of the accidental hat.

Madison, Wisconsin

I love this town.  The past 48 hours have exemplified everything I love about Madison.  Friday night, Husband and I went out for dinner at Monty's Blue Plate.  Monty's is a great choice for vegetarians and vegans, but still offering solid diner foods.  I had the Sheldon, a vegetarian Reuben.  It was delicious and we had great conversation.  We were not even slightly rushed, but the food was a bit delayed, so they comped Husband's meal.  Totally unnecessary, but definitely indicative of their commitment to customer service. 

After dinner, we headed down to State Street to split a pitcher of Spotted Cow at the Union Terrace.  It was a beautiful evening, the crowd was great and the views were spectacular, as always.  The crowd was light which meant we had no trouble getting a table.  We were down there for a few hours, continuing our great conversation and the view, and the weather.

Once we finished our pitcher, we went for a stroll up and down State Street.  State Street/downtown is my favorite part of Madison.  There's generally street performers,  eclectic stores, tons of people. There's amazing people watching.

We headed home and got up early to go enjoy the farmers' market.  The Dane County Farmers' Market is fantastic.  Tons of vendors, tons of people,  more street performers and fantastic shopping.  In the summer, I love to go to the market, pick up something amazing and base a meal around it.  It's hard to go wrong. Anyone heading to our Farmers' Market would do well to pick up a loaf of Spicy Hot Cheese Bread.  There's only one way to proceed with this.  You tear off pieces of it and eat it as you walk around, shopping.

We walked down State with our bread and headed to Collectivo to pick up one of the finest lattes downtown.

After the farmers' market,  I headed to Oregon for a fantastic Italian Soda and a walk with my bestie.  Any time the universe seems wrong, touching base with Sara will surely screw my head on straight.  We had a lovely walk, a fantastic talk and I headed home to rest up for BratFest and Everclear.  I had a Field Roast sausage and an ear of corn before we headed to the mainstage to watch Everclear.  I'm not a huge fan of Everclear, but I did enjoy seeing them play.  They started with my favorite three songs, so I was pretty much set to leave once that was over. The kid was not impressed.

Now, this morning, I'm relaxing, enjoying coffee and thinking of starting my day.  I've been knitting this morning, starting accidental hat v. 2.0.  I'm still struggling with my knitting mojo, but a hat I have to pay attention to might be just the ticket.  Once I have some extra colors on the hat, I will post some progress pictures.

Mother's Day

I had a pretty good Mother's Day overall.  Husband and son made me breakfast and gave me some fun gifts.

I had just mentioned that I had a shortage of t-shirts for working from home.  So they got me a Calcifer t-shirt and a My Neighbor Totoro t-shirt plus a couple of pins and an umbrella.

I spent a fairly large portion of the day knitting.  I made good progress on the dreaded Color Affection.  I finished the knitting and am now redefining interminable during the bind off.  I bet I have 4 hours left to go.  BLAH.

I made some time to run out and pick up a Thug Kitchen cookbook.  I'm pretty excited about that.  While I was out, I got some coffee to run through my french press and picked up a flat white.  Hmmmm, flat white.  What could be better.

I don't have any agenda or thought of knitting today.  I have yoga tonight.

Morning Coffee

On a normal day, I drink between 5-6 cups of coffee.  I'm sure that has nothing to do with my persistent insomnia. 

My good buddy insomnia has been around since before I developed a taste for coffee, but I'm sure that it doesn't help me sleep overall.

For the past several weeks, I've been sitting at about 5 hours of sleep.  In an effort to add an hour or two of sleep to my day, I've scaled back.  I'm now at about 2 cups of drip coffee per day.  Oh coffee, how I miss you.

I'm wondering if my willingness to drink only 2 cups of coffee has anything to do with the following changes.

1. Husband picked out the coffee- which means he went for a standby at Costco, vs. one of my more preferred blends.
2. I recently switched from milk in my coffee to coconut milk.- I'm trying to consume less dairy.

I think I need to get myself to my favorite local coffee shop, True  and get some proper coffee, ground for the french press.  Because if I'm going to ruin my day by drinking only 2 cups of coffee, I want those two cups to be freaking delicious.

I'm going to have to stew on if I want to continue with the coconut milk in my coffee.  I think if the underlying coffee was better, I'd find some more happiness with the coconut milk.

As for knitting.  I didn't even TOUCH yarn yesterday.  I have like 8 works in progress, but to be really honest ALL of them are boring to me.  I need something that will light my hands on fire.  Or I could grow up a little and realize that I don't have to be like wildly excited about everything I'm working on.  But COME ON MAN, can't I just be excited about one thing at this time?

Or maybe I should just let my WIPs stew and focus on spinning up some of my roving.  I've got a good chunk of combed top wool in both red and white, a big bag of fawn colored alpaca and some yak blend, all of which are dying to be spun.  I need to finish the combed top and then  Navajo ply it and then find some reason to knit it.  When I bought that combed top, my thought was to make my husband a Badger hat.  So maybe I will.

I think as a general rule, I need to set a day that I spin so I'm always spinning something. And so that I'm improving my skills.

I also need to really work on some Craftsy classes that I picked up a few weeks ago, including a class lead by the delightful Lucy Neatby.  I saw Lucy speak at a Madison Knitter's Guild meeting and I have SUCH a knitter's crush on her.  And most especially on her skill.  Because

LOOK AT THIS

She's a freaking genius.

And this:

I don't even want to say I want to be Lucy when I grow up because I don't think I have the chops.  I'd settle for being good enough to knit that blanket up there.  Someday.

*photos are lifted from Lucy Neatby's site for the pure fangirl nature of my affection for her*

Spinning a thread of a dream of a life.

I've thought about starting this blog for a while.  A long while, actually.  I've had other blogs on other subjects, but the real love of my life is fiber (other than my husband and son, of course.) And coffee.  I've gone several days without any interaction with either and I can tell you 100%, I'm a better person in this world with a good cup of coffee and a nice bit of knitting in my hand.

In my real life, I do insurance things.  I like insurance a lot, but if I close my eyes and imagine what I would like to do when I grow up, it's always the same thing.  A little shop in a kinda little town with a lot of pedestrian traffic.  There, I run a small coffee and yarn shop.  I wouldn't want to sell food, because I'd love a shop cat.  I'd spend my days hopefully creating new fiber addicts.  Introducing people to the basics.  You know- Cast on, knit, purl, the joys of a really delicious flat white.

I'd have a spinning wheel off in the corner.  In my free time, I'd spin up my own yarn, but maybe not for sale.  Truth is, I'm not that good at spinning. Yet.  I've put together several usable yarns, but I've got a lot to learn.

It would be eclectic in there, because I'm a little diverse.  I can see myself singing along to my favorite Pandora station, spinning, pausing to make someone a coffee,  pausing to pet the cat.
Pausing to work retail.

I'd love it to become  third place for knitters.  Because of this, in my mind, there's an ever present crafting corner.  A place where, if we're open, you're welcome to come in, knit, spin, chat. 

So that's what I want to do when I grow up.  I'm almost 43, so I have to start growing up fast.  Before I can even think about starting something like this, I have some work to do.

As an insurance nerd, I put a lot of stock in professional designations.  So I want to earn my master knitter designation. I also want to become a certified knitting and crocheting instructor.  I can crochet a bit, but I'd love to unravel some of the mystique about it all.  And I want to make it easier for people to become fiber addicts.

I need to become proficient in spinning.

I need to take some business classes.

I need to save a LOT of money.

I need to part time somewhere as a barista.

When I close my eyes and think about retirement, that's what it looks like for me.  How could someone grow old while doing what they love?