No Solar Oven

I didn't build a solar oven after all. I may still, but not this weekend.

My hands are stained with dye, but I am really really excited about dying and colors and making exactly the yarn I want to knit. I have so far perfected the dying process and am confident the resulting fiber's color won't run (much -- all hand dyed yarns do this a bit). I reprocessed the first couple batches to better set the dye in those, and look forward to spinning that fiber soon.

Next, I'll start dying yarn!

Fiber Dye Days

I recently jumped into dying fiber for spinning. I really like the idea of taking color images of my memories and putting them to fiber. For example, bright yellow, white and rich greens will always remind me of my trip to Scotland. The Rape fields were everywhere and those colors are so prominent. Or, neon blues and greens and yellows and reds remind me of Vegas. Lobster red and seaweed green and corn yellow are the colors of the Lobster boil Len and I enjoyed in Maine. So, I had the idea I could take these wonderful colors of my memory and put them to wool, making the resulting spun yarn all the more special to me.

So, I bought a bunch of undyed merino top (wool fiber that has been combed and cleaned and prepared for spinning), and several colors of dye. I didn't do anything with the fiber for a while because I've been afraid of felting it in the process of dying. Plus, you really need big cooking pots that are exclusive to dying (never cook in pots you've used to dye stuff in). I went shopping at some thrift stores for some pots and none were appropriate. But, then I had the idea that the Big Lots near my house might have something cheap and appropriate -- and they did! I bought a good sized stock pot for $12.

My first attempt at dying was a marginal success. I used a method where you dip chop sticks into the powdered dye and then into a section of the fiber as it sits in the pot of hot water. Then I dipped another stick into another color and put it into a different section, and so on. Then, I cooked the mess for 20 minutes.

Trouble is, I boiled it, and the slight agitation caused the colors to mix and now I have 4 ounces of beautiful purple merino, instead of the mix of colors I was hoping for. So, tonight I will do the same, but without boiling -- hoping a slight simmer will do the trick.

This weekend, when I have more time in the middle of the day, I plan to do my cooking outside, using a solar oven that I will make out of cardboard and aluminum foil. Might as well get some use out of the heat in Georgia!

Another Holiday

Hurray!
I just returned from Las Vegas and get another day off a few days later to celebrate the birth of the nation. Woohoo!
I had a great time with mom in Vegas. We gambled and saw the sights and stayed up way too late. It was a nice break from reality. The best part was spending time with my 81-year old mom. Who knows how much longer she'll be able to do stuff like this, so I try to get together with her whenever I can (she doesn't read this blog, so I can say that about her).
Len is off on a morning bike ride today and I am planning to clean house today. We may go to a Braves game tonight, so it should be a pretty good holiday.
Both Len and I went to ball games recently (but separately) with our companies. Len saw the Braves lose, but least I got to see the Braves win! I had a great time at the game and hope to go more often!
On the work front, I started commuting to work with a former co-worker who recently bought a house not far from mine and she works just a few blocks away from me. I get to enjoy some company on my 20-minute ride in now AND save gas money. Less wear aand tear on our cars, too, so it's a win-win-win!
Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Gotta did, so I will, too...

Light Wading tagged me for a meme. I've heard of these things, but have never come in actual contact with any. Until now...

1. What was I doing 10 years ago?
Living in Ann Arbor, Michigan, working at Automobile Magazine.

2. What are 5 things on my to-do list today?
1) Send magazines to a contributor
2) Pack for a trip to Vegas, leaving tomorrow
3) Write a script for an announcer in Australia
4) Interview an Asian businessman
5) Plan my knitting project to take with me to Vegas

3. Snacks I enjoy: Peanuts.

4. Places I’ve lived: Indiana, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Washington

5. Things I would do if I were a billionaire: Create a charitable foundation of which I am the head. The foundation would provide economic incentives to communities I care about to do the things I care about. I would also start a farm for misfit animals, and Jackie Brantley of Greyhounds Galore would run it for me.

At Long Last, I Present the Bathroom

Finally, the bathroom is complete. I painted the room with "Tranquility Blue" paint from a fancy paint manufacturer (the name escapes me). After the color went up, I realized this is nearly exactly the same color as the bathroom at Knitch. It's the highest form a flattery, Knitch Kim.

The new medicine cabinet comes from Rejuvenation. The light fixture came from Lowes, and everthing else (including the tiles) came from Home Depot.

These next two pics show the other side of the room, and how nicely the re-surfaced bathtub looks. Isn't it a nice tub? I am just so pleased that we didn't have to replace it after all!

It's shiny and white and looks brand new. The guy who did the work told Len that he stays in business with his Inman Park clients. No one wants to get rid of their cool old tubs.

I am also very pleased with the subway tiles on the walls, floor and shower wall. The toilet is ultra low-flow. I still need to hem the sheer for the curtain, but that will be done sometime this weekend (or next). We also need to caulk around all the edges before we actually use the shower, but that, too, will be done in the very near future.

Why Is Target Okay but not Wal-Mart?

Really. For a long time I've wondered why I don't ever feel guilty going to Target, but don't like to admit to shopping at Wal-Mart. Truth is, until last week it had been years since I last went to a Wal-Mart (except when visiting my mom and it's one of the only stores in her small town).

A new super Wal-Mart recently opened at the old Avondale Mall location here in Atlanta several months ago after many years of legal wrangling by the locals to stop it. Remember, Wal-Mart almost always wins. In this case, Wal-Mart had to do a lot of special landscaping, etc., and from the looks of things they aren't allowed to have any big signage showing the store is there. Really, I was afraid I'd passed it when I tried to find it last week. I was actually not opposed to this Wal-Mart location. They put it in an area of town that has not seen better days in decades. The store brought a lot of jobs and a lot of traffic to a section of Memorial Drive that really needed the boost. There wasn't a decent grocery store in the area, and Wal-Mart, therefore, provides residents nearby with an alternative to driving miles away.

But, why did I go? Well, I had just read an interesting article about Wal-Mart's attempts to "go green" in their stores. I had a little time and just wanted to see for myself if they incorporated any of the "green" technology into this new store.

They did. For example, there are plenty of skylights in the ceiling, which brings in loads of natural lights. Lights switch on and off depending on need (some sort of fancy sensors in use there) and even the cold case lights switch on and off, sensing when folks walk by. Oh, and the cold case is closed -- saving all that electricity that seeps out of those open cases. Pretty cool stuff. Anyway, on my way out I noticed some bathroom towels in a color I thought might be perfect for the new bath in my house. So I bought two nice. lofty Egyptian cotton towels and matching hand towels and wash rags. They are perfect in the room! Yay! But, I still feel guilty. Why? The country of origin for these towels is listed as "USA and/or imported." WTF does that mean?

Now, about my love affair with Target. I am currently wearing a shirt I bought at Target, made in Nicaragua. In fact, I went to Target yesterday because my hair dryer finally died. I used the old hair dryer for at least 16 years (thank you, Vidal Sassoon)! Hair dryer technology hasn't really changed much in all these years (a lot like a washing machine) so I figured a cheap-o unit from Target would be a fine replacement. $9.99 for a very nice salon-inspired hair dryer, AND it's in a cute bluish-purple color! I also purchased a few new lightweight cotton girlie t-shirts, two pair of flip-flops, a new toilet brush and stand, two boxes of 1-gallon sized zip-top bags, sponges, and a bottle of water for the ride home. Yeah. That's the trouble with Target. You go in for one $10 item and come out having spent $80.

Anyway, the point is, I feel no guilt at having gone to Target. Is it because Target hasn't got the Wal-Mart reputation for ruining small-town America? Is it that Target does have a reputation for sending some of its profits to local charities and community projects? Or, is it that Target is so much more fashionable? Target markets itself as the discount store for young "upwardly mobiles" (a few years ago, I'd have called 'em "yuppies"), and I seem to have bought into their marketing plan. What does that say about me?

Heat Stroke

It's been so hot here in Atlanta this last week that I haven't been interested in doing anything at all. My mom is coming to visit tomorrow and I still have trim to paint in the guest bathroom. But, we finally had a break in the hot weather last night and the city got some cooling rain. So, tonight I will be finishing the bathroom and hanging the towel bars, etc., just in time for the visit from Ma.

She is coming to visit on her way home to Tallahassee from visiting her brother in Indiana. My uncle Monk (who looked like a monkey when he was a baby and never shook the nickname) is a sweet old guy. I hope he decides to spend more time in Florida with Mom. I think she'd love to see him more often. Mom is traveling with my brother Frank's daughter, Emily. She's 8, and my mom decided this was the summer for her first plane trip. As it turns out, it is also her first bus trip as well, since mom needed a way to get to Atlanta from Tallahassee and back, and no one seemed to be able to drive her up and back. Emily LOVES riding the bus. The trip home will take a couple extra hours than flying or driving, but it's a unique and fun experience for Miss Emily. They arrive here tomorrow afternoon and leave again first thing in the morning Saturday. Mom is famous for whirlwind visits. I do wish she'd stay a little longer, though.

Home at last

Treats is back from Scotland. I am tired after the long travel day yesterday, but I am back at the job today. Gotta Knit and her wonderful husband drove me home from the airport last night. Len and the hounds were very happy to see me. Gotta Knit has several more days off this week (BIIAATCH!) and will be able to upload her pics from the green, foggy land before I can, so if you are interested in seeing all the fun stuff we did, check out her blog.
Some quick notes about my trip:
1. I managed to get a sunburn
2. Di Gilpin IS odd, but I loved her
3. Louisa Harding is a lovely woman
4. The Scots don't seem to care if they lose a tooth or two
5. The Scots aren't the most fashionable folk, so I felt right at home while there
6. Folks in the U.S. knit a lot more than folks in Scotland
7. We in the U.S. have a great supply of wonderful, unusual yarn
8. Cobblestones are beautiful, but really hard on your feet

A lot of dead folks in Scotland

Scots are very proud of their history, bloody and violent though it is. William Wallace, for example, was beheaded and cut into bits and pieces were sent to various towns in the country to show what King Edward would do to those who defied him. After Mary, Queen of Scots, married the man thought to have murdered her first husband, she was imprisoned for 21 years before her beheading. In St. Andrews, the bishop there, who was very corrupt and kinda evil, was hung from his own castle, naked, after the people revolted (the bishop pissed them off when he had a "good" man killed in the town square).

The moral: Don't piss off the Scots.

St. Andrews has more to offer than a beautiful golf course. It features a magnificient coast line, the ruins of St. Andrews Cathedral, and lots of interesting history.

Culross is another coastal city in Fife that appears to be in full restoration. It looks like people live in these wonderful homes, and there were children walking about and riding bicycles and old men chatting in the park. Idyllic.

Today is Saturday, and we have a free day (our only day without a set plan). Some folks plan to ride the train to Glasgow, but I plan to hang out in Linlithgow, knitting and drinking coffee and beer. The Linlithgow museum has a special exhibit on Scotty, James Doohan's character on Star Trek. Scotty was born in Linlithgow in 2025, I believe. It should be a great day.

Let's take bets

"I think this Di Gilpin is going to be a weirdo," says my roommate, Linda.

We are going to knit with Ms. Gilpin all day on Sunday, and we need to have an 'inspiration piece' to, well, inspire us. I am actually looking forward to said inspiration.

"Does she not sound weird to you?" Linda asks.

Today is Kathleen's 50th birthday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KATHLEEN!!!!) and we celebrated with a pizza party at the "Atlanta Girls'" cabin tonight. It included a lot of wine, DrumBray (a very special treat), and pizza.

Today, I climbed 246 steps to the top of the William Wallace monument in Stirling.

Sue, my other roommate says, "It is very interesting what our guide calls a 'gentle incline' and a 'mist.''

It rained pretty hard today. But, we managed to go to Di Gilpin's shop in Perth, and see yet another castle. William Wallace is a national hero to Scotland. You may remember him from the movie, Braveheart. Mel Gibson is about 20 inches shorter than the real William Wallace, though.

Tomorrow, we'll see Fife and the St. Andrew's Cathredral. I hope it stops raining before then...

Scotland, Chapter Two

It is Sunday morning and I am in the cottage alone. My roommates have left for the day's activities, but I am staying behind with Alice and Debbie. The three of us are taking the train to Edinburgh today to watch Alice's friend, John, in his running race. It should be a pleasant day.
We spent yesterday with Ms. Louisa Harding, a lovely woman and very interesting knitwear designer. We were knitting samples of her "Betty Wrap" design, and, inspite of how horrible we thought the wrap was based on pictures from her "Knitting Little Luxuries" book, we really enjoyed making the lace pattern. In the end, we decided the wrap was actually quite nice -- the colors in the sample in the book were terrible.
The yarn, for the most part, was not my style. But her Grace yarn is magnificent. I believe it's a 50/50 silk/merino yarn, and it truly is wonderful yarn. It's on my short list of yarns for a good project.

Scotland, First Installment

Alice, Debbie, Kathleen, Kim, Me and the rest of the Scotland team arrived yesterday -- or thereabouts -- in Linlithgow, a lovely town about twenty miles west of Edinburgh. The above picture is the Bonsyde Hotel, with which our cabins share grounds. It is a lovely place to stay, on a high hill overlooking the small town of Linlithgow.

The bright yellow flower shown here is called a "rape," which is grown for fuel in Scotland, but is better known as Canola Oil in the U.S. Alice talked with a Scot, who told her either 17 or 70 percent of the Scottish population is allergic to the flower. She couldn't decipher which from the conversation. In any case, I was sneezing like a fiend until I took some allergy pills.

We are in "self catering" cottages, so we are shopping in the town market, the Tesco, and this aisle sign was pretty hilarious. Bacon and Toilet Paper. If you have one, chances are you'll need the other, I guess.

The walk to town is about a mile and a half, and we pass along a lot of farms and parks and fields along the way. Cows and sheep are everywhere!



The is the Cross, the Main Square in Linlithgow. Here is where the ancients had their public hangings, festivals, and where they watered their horses. Now, it is a tourist attraction.

Vacation Anticipation

I have spent a lot of my career on airplanes, and I have been lucky enough to get to go places that I might not otherwise have seen. But travel for work is WORK. There are suits to wear, meetings to attend, PowerPoint presentations to view, and lots of time spent in hotel rooms writing up memos and stories and garbage like that. That's why I am so excited about going to Scotland (in THREE days!). It's not WORK. I'm going because I want to go -- what a concept!
Working at Knitch yesterday, a couple customers who know about the trip asked if I was excited. I used my reserved-for-home words and told them I was so excited I might pee. Oops. They got the idea, I'm excited.
Kathleen delivered the trip goodies to Knitch, so I now know all the details of the trip. We fly out from Newark late Wednesday night, allowing for overnight snoozing -- much better than leaving from Detroit for Europe at 5 p.m.! Back in those days, I was never tired enough to get any sleep before arriving in my destination the next morning. Made for a bad first day. But, I am confident I'll sleep on the overnight trip to Edinburgh.
One nice lady, who is a Knitch customer, offered to loan me a book for my flight -- 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith of "Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency" fame. Love him! So, after my shift I went to her home to pick up the tome. Judy has an amazing collection of Folk art -- and I am a big fan, so I spent a hour there getting the grand tour. She has an Elvis room, and Mexico room, a bathroom dedicated to religious art. Oh yes, it was quite the spectacular collection! She and her husband, Bud, were married by probably the most famous Folk artist today, the late great Reverend Howard Finster. (A side note: His granddaughter went to college with Len.) She has a funky garden with man-hole covers (she found them, she says) as stepping stones, and bottle trees and lush greenery. It was a feast for the eyes.

Spring Madness

My trip to San Diego was fabulous. I was lucky enough to have a room on the 24th floor with two walls of windows, which allowed me to view the city on one side and the bay on the other. Very good, since I spent pretty much the rest of my time behind the stage of Ballroom 6 at the San Diego Convention Center. I did have a couple nice meals at night in some Gas Lamp district restaurants, and I managed to walk a couple times around the pool area. Still, the event was a huge success, and I walked many miles each day -- proving that I am prepared for my splendid trip to Scotland. Castles and yarn stores, here I come!
Said trip to Scotland begins late next week and every day I will be sending out pictures to all my yarnie friends on these blog pages. Debbie, Alice, Kathleen and the rest of us will be having a great time eating haggis and drinking Scotch while knitting. Fun, indeed!
We leave on the 22nd and return June 2. Check these pages those days to see what we are doing!

Cramming a Lot of Life into a Few Weeks

The bathroom project is still not complete. But, it's the least of my worries these days. In a few days I leave for my company's big event in San Diego, and I'm working on all the things I need to complete before I leave. I have scripts to write and assignments to assign. At least I closed the latest issue of the magazine last week.

I haven't rented a scooter for this event like the one I had for the last one. I'm a little nervous, because these things require a lot of walking, but I figure I can walk until I'm tired, sit a bit, then get up and walk some more. I hope I'm not kidding myself.

Besides, I need to be prepared for the tremendous amount of walking I will be doing in Scotland in a few weeks. There will be castles to see, yarn to admire. I have to be ready for that!

Speaking of Scotland, I will be blogging from my trip. Loads of pictures and commentary. I'm looking forward to traveling with my fancy new ultralight computer. I hope I will have internet access. Hmm. Gotta check into that.

My good friend, Ashley, finally got engaged (I say finally, because she has wanted this for several years now), and my other good friend, Staci, made an offer on a house that was accepted. Len thinks he can finish his pilot's license while I'm away in Scotland. Gosh, there is so much happening in the world around me, I guess it makes me feel less overwhelmed. Everyone has a lot going on, and we all seem to manage.

The endless bathroom project

About six weeks or so ago, Len and I hired a company to gut and remodel our little bathroom. Back when the house was a two bedroom, one bath house, this was the one bath. It's the original bathroom for the home and still had the original 1940s tiles and fixtures. Too bad for us, though, because the floor joists beneath the bath had rotted and our tiles were cracking. If we had been able to save the original tiles, we would have.


As for the sink and commode, some very fashionable homeowner in the 1980s did a quick remodel, and installed a very unfortunate green formica counter and weird wood vanity, and a matching wood seat for the toilet. Top the whole thing off with a cheap medicine cabinet, crappy light fixture and southwestern-style striped forest green wallpaper and you get the idea. Nice.


So we had the floor joists replaced, all the tiles re-done, a new pedestal sink and commode (low-flow 1.2 gallons, thank you very much) installed, and had the fabulous old bathtub resurfaced, keeping the old streamlined/late art deco look of the tub. The tiles are white subway tiles with a black decorative stripe near the edges.


Last week, I thought all that I needed to do was prep the walls and paint to finish off the room. That is, until I went to wash my hands to find the new medicine cabinet had been installed way off center. It seems our contracter didn't bother to mention that he needed to move the sink from its original spot and that the cabinet above would be off-center -- he just installed it that way. And it wasn't an inadvertant mistake, he knew he was doing this. WTF?

So, Len's friend George came to the rescue. He and Len are re-installing the cabinet and adding the lighting, etc. I should be painting in a few days. Hurrah!

I'll publish pics of the final product in a week or so.

A big yarn day in Atlanta

Knitch was THE place to be yesterday (Sunday, April 6). Stephanie Pearl-McPhee, a.k.a. The Yarn Harlot, made her second appearance in the ATL, thanks to Kim Nickels, proprietor extraordinaire of Knitch. Hundreds of knitters piled into the Hilan Theatre a few doors down from the shop to listen to the aforementioned Harlot yammer on about knitting. The Knitch team and a few volunteers kept order and the event went off without a hitch. Pearl-McPhee was funny, interesting, and endearing. Buy her latest book, available at fine bookstores everywhere, as well as at Knitch. Have I said Knitch enough? Knitch, Knitch, Knitch, Knitch. Love that place!

I am spinning again, after a brief (what was it, one week?) hiatus. I made a hank of some lovely yarn as a gift for a certain someone. You'll know who you are soon enough. I also spun up the Hip Hip Hurray batt that Kerry made for me. Pretty in Pink! I also picked up a package of fiber bits from Knitch this weekend (I can't remember the name of the company who made the package of bits, but I'll add that later) and hand-carded the bits with some lovely green, red, yellow, and blue merino.
I call the finished yarn Charming, because I think it's charming!

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

To all who came to The HIP Party to help me celebrate my new parts: THANKS SO MUCH: I HAD A GREAT NIGHT!

It really was a good time for me. Gosh, all that good cheer, not to mention all that beer, really wore me out. Funny, I think it was one of my top birthdays ever. Yep, it was my birthday, too. I didn't mention it to folks who didn't know. Didn't want anyone to feel like they should bring gifts. I am really the girl who has everything. Some folks brought me gifts anyway, and I have to admit, those who did, gave me things I really want! Like the bottle of wine from a certain smartie-pants. I always appreciate booze! And the cutie-patootie picture frame to hi-lite the cute-ness of my hounds. That will soon take a place on my 15th floor window ledge in downtown Atlanta. The gorgeous plant from a certain someone is already on said ledge, enyoying the sunshine. But, the best tangible prezzie is the hand-carded batt from Knitten' Mittens for Ma Kittens. I can't wait to pull out the wheel for that!
Not to be mushy, but the best gift of all was seeing all those folks on Saturday, helping me celebrate the big day. You guys are fabulous. Thanks!

Water Woes

We are having one of our bathrooms remodeled and the guys couldn't shut off the water last week because the valve at the street was really, really old and stuck. So, the city water guys came out and today they are replacing everything at the street. I'm a little worried about our next water bill.

All is Well at Treats

A lot of folks who live outside Atlanta have called or e-mailed to ask how Treats for Breathing fared after the tornadoes that hit Atlanta this weekend. I am happy to report we escaped damage of any kind here at HQ. My office downtown is in the middle of a lot of the devastation, but the building itself was not hurt. I had to stay home from the office today because the cops have asked folks not to go downtown unless absolutely necessary, and my bosses' boss actually called me yesterday to tell me to stay home. I will go in tomorrow, via MARTA.

Len rode his bicycle to school this morning, and had this to say via e-mail: "Wow, the devastation. Sweet auburn market is closed, the building across the street burned down, the main grady building has fences and antennas and other crap hanging off the side, and one of the old grady buildings has its copper roof partially lifted off. Many traffic lights are out. Sirens and helicopters non stop for the past half hour at least."