44 1/2 Hours

In the last week and a half, I have spent 44 1/2 hours working on run-crew. I spent last weekend working on it and then had a day off. Then on Tuesday we started again and have been going since today. We had a matinée today. I now have three days off for knitting, sleeping, and dying. Yay! I have finished a couple of projects, finally.
Below are 8 out of the 15 new colourways in my new collection.
We have (left to right) Seedling, Bamboo, Taurus, Witching Hour, Artery, Reef, Mist, and Senka. More Colourways to come.

I finally picked up boy's hat and finished it. It only needed the decreases to be finished. He really likes it and it fits well.

Today during the performance I finished the second of my Hedgerow socks. The pattern is great and easy, but after a while it just becomes droning and boring. The socks came out beautiful and I love how the Hazel Knits yarn in Lime Granita looks.

Soo, everyone is raving about some silver sock yarn. The other day while at my LYS, I picked up the skein of Kraemer yarn again and decided to buy it. The owner has had the yarn for quite a while, it's an undyed skein. I brought it home and automatically dyed it. I love green, if you hadn't noticed. I don't know what it will be yet, but I'm looking for patterns. it's not as soft as I would like, but oh well. Let's see if it's really worth buying a dyed skein for $30.

OOO and the flooding is finally going down enough for my roads to be open again. Coralville and the arts campus of the University of Iowa are both disasters, but at least my roads are open!

Exhaustion

This past weekend my Run-crew started. Run-crew is backstage work that is required for my Theatre Arts degree. Well, because the arts campus is flooded and probably won't even be open this fall, the theatre department has moved their productions to West High School. Yay. . . Thats not the only problem, the first production I am working on has back breaking work. My body has been aching since Saturday. I have so far worked 17 1/2 hours and have 7 more hours tonight, then 5 tomorrow, etc etc etc. Yes, so much fun. I have been trying to relax and take it easy between shifts.
Here is what I've been up to:
I have three more skeins added to my sash. The first one is Sundara Silk Lace in Granite Falls. This is from the Seasons Club. I honestly have NO IDEA what I'm going to do with it. =/ The second is Hazel Knits Artisan Sock Yarn in Weekend Warrior. This will become socks for my brother for Hanukkah. And the last one is some beautiful handspun sock weight yarn I purchased off etsy.

I have been working on these socks off and on, but during run-crew, even when I get to sit, there are only black lights. It's very hard to see what I'm doing. I make start plain stockinette socks and take those instead. This is Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in Lime Granita. I love this yarn and the Hedgerow pattern is soo easy, but the lack of light doesn't help much.

In my spare time I have also been preparing the first part of my new line of colourways. I am going to limit it to about 12 colourways. Most will be semi-solids and some will be variegated. Sex Kitten will be the only one of my previous variegated colourways that will remain.
Below we have some of my new semi-solids. (names Left to Right) Bamboo, Taurus, (new) Artery, and Mist.

Below is another of the new colourways. I wound this one up because it will be knit into lace socks for a friend who is getting married in August. I'm unable to attend the wedding because my classes start the following day. =( This colourway is Jasmine.

I also have an oops skein below if anyone wants it, just email me at gbutlernet@yahoo.co.uk. Thanks!

We're Alive. . .

Sorry I haven't posted for a while. Last Wednesday, 2 days after getting back to Iowa City, Boy and I made the decision to leave again. I was afraid that Coralville would flood (which it did) and cut off our only exits to the highway. So, Boy and I returned to Rockford last Wednesday. It was a wise decision because the flood waters really rose on Thursday and crested on Saturday. I kept my eyes on the pictures on the internet and was shocked at what I saw. Luckily my apartment is on top of a hill away from from the waters, but as you can see below, the arts campus is flooded and that is at one side of the hill and the river is on the other side. I'm a theatre major and this is horrible to see all of the art buildings surrounded by water. These pictures were taken this evening.
Here is the Art Museum.

Rocky Shore, one of my exits from my neighborhood.

The new Fine Arts Building.

The Theatre Building.

You can see how far up the waters were when they crested.

Because we were "refugees" as my dad put it, we decided to join them this weekend and visit my grandparents in Columbus, Ohio. It was quite a weekend. . . . We left and arrived on Saturday after 9 hours of driving. After we unloaded the cars, put Harry in her cage and took the three dog out, my parents wanted to drive around and look at the suburb where my grandparents live. My grandma came with the 4 of us. On our way back down a main drag that goes by their house, my mom's cell began to ring and as my dad tried to find it, my mom saw a dog in the middle of the road walking towards us. It was Mac, yes my dog Mac. Somehow he had gotten past my grandpa and ran out of the house (I blame my grandpa because they have 2 doors, one onto the porch and one outside from the porch). Luckily it was all timing and we found him. I jumped out of the car while it was still moving and called his name. I grabbed my dog and got back into the car. It's kind of a blur right now because I still can't believe the irresponsibility of my grandpa. Seriously!! Mac is alright and we believe he was out looking for me. My parents then would only allow one of the 4 of us to take him out, etc.
The next day my parents took my grandparents to a brunch at Ohio State University Faculty Lounge for Father's Day and they dropped Boy and I off at Noodles to walk around and fend for ourselves. It was a good day. Finally Monday my dad took Boy and I to the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. It was great getting away from my grandparent's house for the day and spending it looking at animals, etc. We had tons of fun. We then left Ohio on Tuesday and went home. We were all happy to return. I love my grandparents, but over the past few years they have become more bitchy and picky about everything. Below are some pictures from the zoo.
The beautiful female Amur Tiger. (less than 400 left in the wild) =(

My Dad being bombarded by Laurikeets. This was fun feeding them.

And my dad conversing with a female gorilla. This was HILARIOUS!!! <3

That is all, thank-you soo much for everyone who asked if we were alright. Greatly appreciated. I am also going to be putting yarn in my etsy store up discounted prices so I can start my new line of colours.

More Rain and flooding. . .

Below is a picture from Thursday before Boy and I went to Rockford for the weekend. Yeah, more roads are closed in Iowa City. I have only one way to get to highway 6 from my apartment and it happens to be a long and winding detour that goes way out of the way. It kind of sucks.

While we were in Rockford I took him to Burpee Museum of Natural History, the home of the most complete juvenile T-Rex, Jane. She is only 60 miles from Sue in Chicago. It's great. He really liked her.

Below is also one of their other projects, a juvenile Triceratops named Homer. They also found a Stegosaurus and something else to work on.

I have also been working on a pair of Hedgerow socks using my Hazel Knits yarn in Lime Granita. I'm really loving this yarn. It's soo soft and beautiful.

To finish this post off, my parents were in Serbia last week for my cousin's wedding. The only thing I requested was yarn. Below is the yarn that they found. The Marija is a wool/acrylic blend, St. George are cotton blends and the Mare is 100% silk.

It's Raining, It's Pouring and the Old Man is Snoring?

Okay, no old man. . . but damn did it pour this morning. About a week ago boy and I went and visited The Fold after we went to Woodfield Mall. Of course, Toni is a doll and I adore her. I bought some Mountain Colours fiber, two "hanks" of it. The colours are GORGEOUS!!! I'm already spinning one of them, hence the reason I'm only showing you one. Unfortunately none of the hanks are named colours and you can't buy the same colour in two hanks. Only crappy part.

Here is this month's fiber from Spunky Eclectic. It's called Rosebud. It's beautiful. For some reason I have 12 ounces instead of 8. I need to email Amy about it. But I still love it. It is corriedale wool.

I also purchased a skein of STR's Knitters without borders. It only comes in lightweight though. Blah! Toni also gave me a skein of Lucy in the Sky because one of my Raven skeins was full of knots.

Here's a random picture of all the meds I take in the morning. I'm 22 people. . . .and yes, one is a vitamin.

I purchased a new camera last night and love it! It takes better pictures than my old one. My old camera got the crap beat out of it at Disney. Here is a picture of a funky tree in my "backyard."


OH YES and DAMN the Post Office for raising package shipment to $4.80!!!!