Insubordiknit

Vague pictures of super secret project!

What a weekend!

Shew. What a weekend. Filled with work, friends and possibility. I finally got to meet Jodi Green and Shannon Herrick and they are both so awesome I just wanted to pinch their arms to see if they were real. They were here to help out with the project -- the spinning art yarn instructional dvd! More details on that as it gets edited and closer to the release date. For now I'm going to bask and sleep because after 20 hours of shooting, I'm exhausted.

Also in the big news category, LB lost a tooth! His first one. Yep, his first one lost, his first one swallowed. He was so very sad about the latter. So sad that I spent the next three days, sifting and squeezing while wearing rubber gloves, if you know what I mean, if you don't, it's probably better, suffice it to say, I feel I've proved my love. The tooth was never recovered. The note that went under his pillow looked like this --

Tooth Fairy,
Sorry, I swallowed it (the tooth).

Secret underway!

Real quick, because I've been getting e-mails rregarding the lack of Tomato vines and Vitreous humor yarns, and updates in general -- the super secret surprise is underway! I'll be absent for through next weekend. Well, I'll be here, but not here if you know what I mean. I'll even have company. Yah, super cool company. I won't be updating the shop normally, if at all, but if you're desperate for some TV or VH, here at sandrasingh's there might be a few for sale.

Cross your fingers that super secret surprise turns out as awesome as I hope!

oh yeah, in other news, I'll be teaching some art yarn classes this spring at Springwater and starting in march, I'll be teaching lots of spinning and knitting classes on Sunday afternoons/evenings at Spinster yarns in baltimore, MD ('cause it's right down the street from me and it rocks!).

Happy birthday baby

Is this your first letter? I think it may be, minus a few lines here and there in cards and e-mails, this is your first letter. A love letter, even. You are turning One tomorrow and before you enter the days of age, I want to say a few things about you, and me, and us, and how much you've filled a part of my heart I didn't even know I had. To be honest, really honest, I didn't know if I wanted another child. I was so happy with your brother, you know him, he's enough for anyone, all smiles and brains and funny ideas. I thought there was no way I could possibly love anyone as much as I loved him (just so you're not kept in suspense, let me tell you, I could and do). He was my number one and I felt really protective of that, protective of the idea of having a single number one. It didn't even really change while I was pregnant, that feeling. You know about how the pregnancy began, right? Almost by ending. Open belly surgery to remove...well, to remove what they though was you, only not you, a you that didn't work out, that grew in the wrong place and then filled my belly with a liter and a half of blood making it so that I couldn't breathe or move or continue to live without your removal...well, removal of what they thought was you. It wasn't you though. The doctors claimed but I knew it wasn't. A mother knows. So they removed the cyst and the blood and they told me that you might be okay.

Nine months later you were okay. Nine months later in the middle of the worst ice storm baltimore had seen in years, you were great, pulled from my abdomen by the gloved hands of a really kind doctor. The moment I saw your tiny, wrinkly, perfect body I knew that I would love you with all my heart and forever. Everyone felt like that, cooing that you were the prettiest baby ever, forgetting that your brother was pretty damn cute as well, but that day all anyone could see was you.

The nurses, who only hours before were shaving my netherbits, snuck your brother in the recovery room right away so that he could tell you your name. He was your biggest supporter, from before you were even an idea, you were his idea and he had equal billing in naming you. We wanted you to be the first besides the three of us to know your name and we wanted him to tell you. Out of your big brother's mouth is the first time you heard your big name. And it is big, I know. I also know that you can fill it out. Just like you filled out your onesies! Yes, you did. We've said from the beginning, “she's got the head of a newborn and the ass of a 2 year old” and it's true girlfriend, you've got back!

A few months ago you had rolls and rolls everywhere, and I loved every one of them, whispering sweet words between them, kissing the creases, holding you close so that your tiny body warmed my big one. How is it that such a tiny body can have so much more warmth than one as big as mine?

Your rolls are less now, your too busy to keep them around. Burning through them like you burn across the floor, splinters be damned, hours later I see a splinter in your knee or hand and I'll marvel that it didn't slow you down.

It's not like you don't eat either. You eat like a champion. You're not the milk-obsessive baby that your brother, all day, all night, but you've got half of it down, for sure. It's a good thing you can unhook a nursing bra or I'd be getting no sleep. Other than milk, raspberries, that's your favorite. You'll spit out anything if you see a raspberry. Tofu is a no-fail as well. Sweet potato. Carrots. Enchaladas! You eat baby, you eat.

Your breath still unhinges me. No matter what you eat you manage have the sweetest little hot breath. Sometimes in the morning when you're still sleeping I'll snug right up to you, as close as I can get without waking you, but I'll put my face even closer, right up next to your open mouth. That feeling of your sweet hot breath fills me with such a good feeling, like fresh baked bread. I know your breath won't stay that sweet, at least if your brother is any indication, but right now it can make me cry.

Pretty much everything about you can still make me cry if I think about it enough. Love does that, feels so good that it hurts, John Melloncamp got that right, though I'm not sure he was talking about sweet, hot baby breath.

I can't not mention your smile, from gummy grin to toothy smile, they've all been disarming. Light up a room, again taking after your big brother, lucky girl, that smile will take you places. Just don't let it or your tiny legs take you too fast, my whole heart is wrapped up in your little limbs. Happy birthday sweetest girl shaped biscuit.

Circle the wagons!

This yarn is called Prairie Prayer and it's one of the Circle of Wagons yarns. In case you don't know, a very important gal, Holly is facing some health issues and mounting medical bills, and so spinners far and wide are donating yarns, variations on a theme, to help defray some of her, you know, costs and worries. Anyway, this is my yarn for Holly. Below is the story of it's spinning and since it's also a spinning challenge, on Sunday make you way on over to Lexi's blog and vote on your favorite of these thoughtful yarns. And if you're so inclined, head over to Homestead and buy and bid on the yarn of your choice!

You know, my first inclination for Circle the Wagons was to do something gruesome, it would have been so easy and natural. However, I really wanted to challenge myself, work outside my normal gory-osity, I decided to take it in another direction, go for pretty, go for green, go for hope, and friendship, while still evoking the prairie. I wanted this yarn to be about everyone being there for everyone else, so I used only gifted fiber. Every bit of fiber in this yarn was given to me by fellow spinners, have a look, if you've ever sent me fiber, it's probably in there! I started finding green and then by carding wonderfully soft locks and roving together with tussah silk noils (natural and green) and organic natural caramel cotton. I spun this into a lumpy bumpy single around a core of blue cotton that I unraveled from a placemat that I received in a recent fiber swap. I also autowrapped it with a really thin single of natural merino wool, letting this wind on of it's own awkward accord, much like life twists and turns of it's own accord. While spinning this single, i held some sweet-smelling hemp to the side and let it grab on at an angle, mimicing the tall kansas prairie grass waving in the wind above the smaller, shorter tufts of green. I also spun in some flowers I hand felted out of flame-dyed, uncarded polypay wool with yellow and pink centers. Not too many flowers, just enough to pretty up a long journey, to bring home the fact that on any trail, any hard journey, there's beauty, even if it's small and unpredictable. The same thing goes for the sky, throughout I switched tension and let little cocoons of the threaded blue sky poke out and lighten it up a bit. To top it off, I spun in is one huge handfelted Sun, because the sun is always there to shine on everyone, no matter what you're going through. All in all, I wanted this yarn to speak to a long journey, to the helpfulness and love of friends and community, and to the prairie, which had all of that in abundance. With love and hope to Holly, jacey

Happy birthday!

What's bigger than than a breadbasket but smaller than Sweetpea's whole body but bigger than my head but smaller than a car? What? My new bobbins!! Look at the size of those things! They hold 2 lbs of fiber! I spun a yarn on them last night and a yarn that would have been only 70 yards on my lendrum (which I still have mad love for) ended up being 200 yards on this thing, and the bobbin was only half full! Holy spinning, batt-man!

yep, it's my 33rd birthday and I got a new wheel. I mean, the new wheel is also for the special secret project, but really, it's for me! Happy Birthday to me! I'm 33! Go ahead, click on those pics and check out my sweet baby! Who cares about getting older when your surrounded by such big bobbins?! oh, and also by people you love, that's nice as well.

Street smart hoodie

You know, everytime I watch America's Next Top Model I think if I were young and beautiful, I could totally rock that photo shoot! I'd speak with my eyes, my intense eyes. I'd have body language that spoke to everyone. I'd totally kick ass! However, when it comes down to it, I fall on my real-sized woman's ass. Yep, so not a model. But, apparently I am a knitter. Check out the Paton's Street Smart Cabled Hoodie! I started it eons ago before baby #2 but couldn't bring myself to seam it until my bosoms were no longer the size of small watermelons and I stood half a chance stretching it around my girth.

That day was last night. After sitting in a bag for a year, untouched, 2 hours of work is all it took. And it's great. After Sweet Pea weans herself the length should be perfect (smaller boobs=slightly longer sweater length).

All in all I'm pleased as punch with the sweater. The hoods a little weird, but it was my first hood and I didn't know any better. Slightly pointy. Slightly huge. The zipper was super easy, barely an hour of work and it was zipping up and down like an old pro.

And yes, the color is that orange.

Jeckle and hyde

Since my pop has received his B-day present now, I'm posting a pic of it being modeled by LB. Warm and scary.

In the website rebuild arena, I've gotten several people interested and am meeting with a local this week! Yeah, I'm hopeful, doing this sort of thing is his actual job.

Update tomorrow, but it'll be small. Most likely the updates will be small until after my secret is no longer a secret -- after Feb. 25th. Until then, I'm busy, secret-keeping is hard work, you know.

Oh, and guess who's turning 33 on Wednesday?