It looked a lot like ramen noodles. After an hour or so, I rinsed the yarn and then hung it up to dry.

You can probably tell the 2 smaller skeins were my first couple of tries at winding the yarn. By the last one, I had figured out what I needed to do. I took out my yarn swift that my Dad made for me (thanks to the instructions on Instructables) and started to wind the yarn on there. The other thing I learned is to make sure you wind the skeins tightly, otherwise, you’ll have a hard time getting rid of that ramen noodle look. And those crazy little udder looking things at the bottom of the skeins – those are weights, fishing weights to be exact.

I bought a couple of packs of fishing weights (sinkers? I think that’s what they are called – is that right,Dad?) and I had some thick brass wire that I just used to weigh down the yarn to hopefully pull out some of the kinks in the yarn.

I tried another sweater the next day.

Here’s a couple pictures of what the sweater looked like before I recycled it. It was a great looking sweater but just way too big for me. I’m assuming that it was a men’s size small because it was pretty large.

And here’s a couple of close ups

And here’s a close up of the sleeve: (that’s Kink’s paw taking a swipe at the sweater. She apparently felt left out of the photo shoot)

And here’s what the tag said: That’s says 100% Kilcarra Yarn. Score! (a quick search found Kilcarra yarn being sold for around $9/10 for 90 yards)

One thing that kinda bugged me about this whole process was, that i didn’t really know how much yarn I actually had. I did a little research and thanks to The AntiCraft website, I headed over to Lowes and with $3, I made myself a Niddy Noddy.  Now I was able to get a a rough idea as to how much yardage I would end up with. (those are Bob the Christmas Trees needles. He went to Christmas tree heaven this weekend – aka they mulched him).

You should have seen the guys at Lowes when I tried to explain what it was that I was making and what it was going to be used for. Apparently they had a couple of college guys come in and ask for help with making a beer bong. From what the Lowes guys told me, it sounded like the college guys used what I can only imagine was duct work for their beer bong. I would assume at that point it’s more of a keg bong. Anyway, when I finally showed them what I needed done, they were happy to cut the pipe for me. Note to self – next time have them cut a length of pipe for a 2 yard measurement as well as 1 yard measurement. I ended up having to wind the yarn twice. Once to count the yardage and once to make sure the hank was long enough.

Here’s the second sweater hanging up to dry:

I figured out that i got roughly 1400 yards of yarn out of this sweater. So here’s the breakdown of cost for everything:

Sweater – $6 each – seriously… I love Goodwill

weights – $9

Niddy Noddy – $3

I did also buy tension shower curtain rod to hang in the shower to dry the skeins – a budget busting – $10 So the total for 2 sweaters worth of yarn -$34 I couple of costs that i didn’t really factor in here was the brass wire and the wool wash as I already had them.

Going forward, I may have to invest in a bigger bottle of wool wash. Next time the only cost to me will be the cost of the sweater and of course the time it takes to unravel, wash and dry the yarn. If I find a cotton sweater in good condition I may try it try recycling cotton as well.

The other thing I did this weekend was make a Clementine cake and the Zuni Cafe roast chicken recipe from the Smitten Kitchen website. This website has become my new favorite website. Everything I have attempted to make from this site has been fabulous. The clementine cake was a big hit. I was rather easy and it made the whole house smell soooooo good.

The Zuni Cafe chicken was also good. The only problem was that my smoke detectors are so touchy that they go off at the drop of a hat. So everytime the chicken would spit or pop, it would hit the heating coils in the oven and smoke. So I ended up taking all the batteries out of all the smoke detectors in the house and opening the door and a window. So needless to say, it was a bit chilly in the house for a bit and I probably should have cooked the chicken a bit longer, but I thought the threat of losing the tips of my toes and fingers to frostbite far outweighed a tasty chicken.

Oh and John, here’s the run down of Sherlock Holmes actors who have been in some form of a Masterpiece Theater Classics (or a Jane Austen movie).

Mark Strong who played Lord Blackwood – played Mr. Knightly in the 1996 Masterpiece Theater version of Emma (among several other PBS/BBC productions of classic literature) with a bad hairpiece.

Eddie Marsan – Inspector Lestrade – was Pancks in Little Dorritt – He was also in Happy Go Lucky with Sally Hawkins (who was Anne Elliot in the recent PBS version of Jane Austen’s Persuasion) and Elliot Cowan, who played Mr Darcy in Lost in Austen (also sporting a really bad hair piece). On a side note, I’m pretty sure this image is why your friend watches Lost in Austen so much. I thank God everyday for tivo because of this image. Really, a body like that should only be brought out on certain occasions. You can’t just parade that around whenever you want. You could start riots with that body. Right John? I mean you and Elliot have a very similar build.

Kelly Reilly – Mary Morstan – She played Caroline Bingley in the Keira Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice.

William Houston – Constable Clark – played John Boucher in North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell- and not the Patrick Swayze US version (RIP Patrick Swayze).

Hans Matheson – Lord Coward – was Alec D’Urberville in Tess of the D’Urbervilles

And finally the big dude – who was also 300 – Robert Maillet, was in fact a WWF/E (whatever the heck they go by these days) wrestler by the name of Kurrgan.

And I didn’t even talk about who appeared on Mystery or Poirot or any Agatha Christie shows.

And just one last thing, Rachel McAdams, if you’re reading this, could you lay off things like the Notebook and the Time Traveler’s Wife? Dear God, what piles those movies were. Talk about overly romantic and sappy. And that’s coming from someone who loves Jane Austen.

Find the following people among players on your and the other teams. (Each person can only be listed once.)

1. Someone with the same craft as you.  Lily May Clearwater – I knit and while I have some crochet hooks, I haven’t really gotten that into it yet.
2. Someone who was born in the same month. Enna Kirts also born in August – the best month ever… aside from December.  I really can’t compete with Christmas.
3. Someone from a different country. Eugine Nigeno – I believe is in the Netherlands!
4. A new HSKS Quidditch player.  I think Maisy Muddlesticks is new.
5. A player who has been in 3 or more HSKS swaps. Violet Starfire
6. A player who has a bigger stash than you! (And if your stash is the biggest, proudly say so!) – well this one should be easy, as I’m slowly working my stash down.  So I’ll say Selena Starfire
7. A player who both knits and crochets.  that’s easy!  my swap buddy, Bridget the Bloodthirsty!
8. Someone who has the same favorite color as you. Quietus, of course!

There’s more homework to do, but I’m a bit exhausted. I did a nice mile swim this evening and am now going to start sleeve numero 2 on the french braid sweater.  Here’s hoping I can have it done this week!  But I may just grab my book – Tears of Pearls by Tasha Alexander, and go to bed.

Find the following people among players on your and the other teams. (Each person can only be listed once.)

1. Someone with the same craft as you.  Lily May Clearwater – I knit and while I have some crochet hooks, I haven’t really gotten that into it yet.
2. Someone who was born in the same month. Enna Kirts also born in August – the best month ever… aside from December.  I really can’t compete with Christmas.
3. Someone from a different country. Eugine Nigeno – I believe is in the Netherlands!
4. A new HSKS Quidditch player.  I think Maisy Muddlesticks is new.
5. A player who has been in 3 or more HSKS swaps. Violet Starfire
6. A player who has a bigger stash than you! (And if your stash is the biggest, proudly say so!) – well this one should be easy, as I’m slowly working my stash down.  So I’ll say Selena Starfire
7. A player who both knits and crochets.  that’s easy!  my swap buddy, Bridget the Bloodthirsty!
8. Someone who has the same favorite color as you. Quietus, of course!

There’s more homework to do, but I’m a bit exhausted. I did a nice mile swim this evening and am now going to start sleeve numero 2 on the french braid sweater.  Here’s hoping I can have it done this week!  But I may just grab my book – Tears of Pearls by Tasha Alexander, and go to bed.

And now onto the training.  Yesterday I was hurting.  Apparently I keep all my stress and tension in my shoulders.  And when I run that’s when it makes it known that I have some stress.  So I decided to take a day off and recover.  Today was the make up day.  I did around a 4 mile run and a half mile easy swim.  It actually wasn’t bad.  I can’t say that I love running, but it’s tolerable.  Tomorrow is a long run – 7 miles.  I think I may need to get a new pair of running shoes this week.  I have a feeling the miles are my current sneakers are pretty high up there.

Tonight I’m just gonna take it easy.  Hopefully I can finish the sleeve for the French Braid Sweater.  Here’s what I’ve got done so far.  It’s the body to the under arms.  Then I need to do the sleeves and attach them and from there, hopefully it’s just a few short hours of knitting and then I can wear it!

I’m taking a short break from the Interlaken blanket and I’m working on the French Braid Sweater from Interweave Knits magazine ( ps I would love a subscription to Interweave Knits – just throwing it out there).  So far, it’s going well.  I’ll try and take a few photos of it tomorrow.

Yeah… it’s sick.  She’s constantly showing her “goods” to anyone and everyone who might be visiting or looking in my windows.  i think she might be running some sort of kitty peep show while I’m at work.  There’s a lot of cats in the neighborhood and there’s one cat, Rodney, that tried to invite himself in to our place.  Perhaps she’s got something going on with Rodney.

I finally took a photo of the chicken viking hat.  It happened to be on Kink at the time, but hey, at least you can see what it looks like… on an angry cat.

It’s a little blown out but it was the best I could do.  It had to be a sneak attack.  If it wasn’t I probably would have been torn to shreds by her.

yeah… it was big.  At least 2 inches.  After he/she was crushed with the bottom of my flip flop at high speeds, I then wiped down the doorframe and the doorjamb with a Pledge wipe.  I read somewhere that spiders have tastebuds on their legs/feet and they don’t like the taste of Pledge.  And doggoneit!  It works!  No spiders have tried to cross the Pledge threshold.  I’ll be wiping down all the windows this weekend.  That’ll learn ‘em!

I also got a cool package in the mail!  My Harry Potter Summer Camp package came!  It had to come all the way from Italy!

There’s a few things missing from the photo – mainly a few more packs of Smarties… they barely made it past the first 5 minutes of me finding them.  And 2 catnip mice for the kids.  As soon as I put the box down on the floor Kink started sniffing around the box until she found them.  There’s also two patterns that were with my kit – the Leaf Lace Socks by the ever popular Evelyn Clark and the Stackable Cats by MochiMochiLand!

And I’ve been slowly but surely working on Interlaken.  I’m about a 1/3 of the way done with it. Here it is, on it’s side.

My hope is to have it done by Christmas/New Years.  I may have to have another project going on along with this one.  Interlaken is a relatively easy pattern.  The only challenging thing is the color changes and the constant turning of the work.    I’ll see if there’s something that I can pick up and leave be for a bit without wondering where I am in the pattern.

She’s a true Red Sox fan – note the Red Sox cat nip toy and the fact that she’s had too much to eat and probably drink that she’s passed out.

And here’s a picture of Jimbo.  He has a girlfriend.  Unfortunately she doesn’t know he’s alive.  It’s like the cat version of a John Hughes movie.

And as for what I’m knitting, well, let me show you.

That’s right!  It’s my friend’s wedding present.  Yeah, they now have a child.  This will be finished by the time I head to Portland for my hopefully annual Yarn Train trip.