So many hobbies!

So much to tell...

First let me tell you a story.  There we were, my sister and I, driving up north on the 4th of July.  I was only driving 60 mph because gas it too freaking expensive and I had a 3.5 hour drive up and back.  Anyway, I changed lanes, because the car in front of me was going even slower than I, and I wasn't paying attention to the traffic in front of me.  My sister, starting out quietly and getting louder, said, "Brake.  Brake!  BRAKE!  BRAKE!!!"   The traffic in front of us was slowing down fast and I slammed on the brakes.  We weren't slowing down fast enough and I knew I was going to hit the guy in front of me.  Hard.  So, desparate, I swerved into the far left lane, praying the car I'd seen there was not right next to me any more.  Fortunately, he wasn't and everything was okay.  Except that now, in order to slow down, my brake pedal was almost on the floor before the brakes would start to catch.  Very bad.  A moment after I got back into the far right lane, the Brake light came on and half a tick later, the warning ding started sounding.  Loudly.  The owner's manual said to pull over immediately and call a tow truck but we were 2 hours from my house and 1.5 hours from the cottage.  We listened to that darn warning beep for the rest of the trip.  I figured since we were just driving with no stopping, we could at least drive to our exit and then stop.  We wouldn't need the brakes until then.  The end of the story is we got to the cottage without incident but I had to have all four brakes lines replaced because they'd rotted out.  Nice.

All of this leads to my announcement that going to SOAR is now no longer an option.  I really, REALLY wanted to take the color blending class with Deb Menz but that's out now.  I was also looking forward to finally meeting Elizabeth face to face and having some nice, long chats.  Yup, new brakes ate a huge chunk of my vacation fund.  Sometimes life is a huge pain in the arse.  As a consolation prize,  I'm hoping to be able to get a group together for a road trip to Rhinebeck.  Road trips are very doable if you have enough people sharing the gas and the hotel room.  My apologies to my cousins in Texas:  a plane ticket is out, too, if I want to go to Sanibel Island in February.

On the plus side of my brake problems, when I was visiting with my family, my brother offered me the small chest freezer he has in storage that he doesn't need any more.  This solves my freezer needs.  And, as an extra surprise, my SIL's parents were visiting from Florida and her dad saw me spinning.  He said he'd bought his wife a spinning wheel when he was in New Zealand that she never used and asked me if I wanted it.  Of course, I said YES!  All I know is it's about 10 years old, was never used, and isn't a castle-style wheel like Owen.  I don't know who the maker is as they didn't remember.  I can't wait until the next time they drive up for a visit!

Is this not incredibly beautiful?  I bought this on Etsy a little over a year ago and I've been saving it all this time until I was good enough to do it justice.  It's 4 ounces of a Merino/Tencel blend.  It's spinning like a dream.  I haven't spun Merino/Tencel in a long time and I'd forgotten how easily it drafts and how smoothly it spins.  I haven't decided if I'm going to ply it with itself or ply it with a white singles.  I don't know if I'll get enough yarn for a pair of socks with just the 4 ounces but I don't really want to dilute that beautiful color with white.  It's my current spinning project for the Tour de Fleece so I'll just keep spinning and hope a solution occurs to me soon.

The blueberries are ripe for the picking starting this weekend so that's where I'll be Saturday morning, and possibly Sunday if my freezer isn't full after Saturday.  That reminds me, I need to clean out the freezer and see just how much room I have.  I don't have the gifted chest feezer yet and the blueberries won't wait.  Have a good weekend!

Never long enough

Hiya!  Did you miss me?  I had a wonderful time at my parents' cottage with my family.  It was pretty quiet.  I read, spun every day and almost finished knitting my sock - I just need to bind off.  Do you want to see where I was?

 

My parents built the cottage the summer I turned three so we've been coming up here for a while.  The level of the lake has been rising and we've been losing land to erosion so we had to put in a sea wall.  We used to have a nice little beach as you can see, not any more.  No, I don't sail - unless someone else is driving.  The catamaran is a blast to sail but a huge pain when you want to come about (turn around).  One time a certain member of my family managed to flip and got the mast stuck in the bottom of the lake.  Dad had to come rescue them.  Nope, not me.  I know the basics of sailing but I'm not confident enough in my abilities to go out on my own, at least not with the cat.  Give me a nice, small Sunfish and I'd be happier.

Some of my best memories are being up at the lake.  One summer, we spent the whole summer up there - Mom and us kids.  Dad came up for long weekends.  We'd pick wild blueberries, visit the gravel pit (trust me, it was fun), go mushroom hunting (for fun, not eating), go petosky hunting, swim, hunt for worms one day to fish the next... it was a wonderful way to spend summers.  My birthday is in August and when we were at the cottage, there were always kids up there to help me celebrate.  At home, I can't remember ever having a birthday party because everyone was on their end-of-summer trip.

I've joined up with the Tour de Fleece 2008 and I've been spinning every day.  I decided not to take David along so I spun the roving for my second Divine Melon sock while up north and plied it yesterday.  This will be the next yarn I use.  Sock #1 is longing for a mate.

I'm putting some of the roving I dyed two weeks ago up in my store tonight.  It's getting late so only some will be going up.  Here are a couple more I dyed but haven't posted about:

4 oz. of Merino/Tencel.  What do you think?  Pansies?  Purple Haze?  Grapes?

4 oz. of Superwash Merino.  Any name suggestions?  I really love this one.  The colors are very saturated, which is what I like.  The more color, the better.

Okay, gotta go stock the shelves.  'Night.

It's a start

I ran into some frustration this weekend in regards to my cleaning and organizing project.  You see, I have so much freakin' stuff, if I clear off a surface, I literally don't have any place to put the stuff I'm trying to clear.  I kind of turn in a circle, not knowing where to start.  You have no idea how frustrating that is.  My only option, since I have no more storage, is to move up.  I didn't get done all that I wanted but I did put up some shelving and cleared off my wool/fiber area.  This is the before picture:

And this is the after:

I'm so proud of myself I can hardly stand it.  I still need more storage but it's a start.  I learned it's nearly impossible to put shelves up by yourself.  I needed my neighbor to mark the spots for the holes while I held the shelf level.  Once that was done, it was a breeze to drill the holes, hammer in the anchors and screw the shelves into the wall.  Well, maybe not a breeze - I was dripping by the time I was done - but don't they look great!?  Damn, I'm good!  I finally have some place to hang my ribbons, storage for the 6+ pounds of yarn blanks I just bought, as well as some open shelf space.  My computer desk is to the left of the table and coming out at right angles to the table and I'm already planning on putting up a third shelf to hold computer stuff.  I'm not quite there just yet but I expect I'll be studying the rest of my condo later this week looking for potential locations for new shelving.

Saturday at our guild meeting, I bought 4 oz. of roving that had me walking up to people, handing the roving to them and saying, "Touch this!"  (You can do that with spinners - they don't think you're a wacko.)  The roving is 75% angora/25% Merino.  Oh.  My.  That's part of the reason, I suppose, that I didn't get more done this weekend:  I just had to start spinning it up.

Naturally, I have no idea what I'm going to do with the yarn when I'm done spinning it.  That wasn't the point.  I just really needed to experience the spinning and the touching.  Okay, yes, I groped the fiber.  What of it?  You would, too.  Trust me.

Peace and comfort

I'm afraid I have nothing to show for the night.  I've had an unsettling week and tonight I had a simple craving for peace.  As is my wont at times like this, I spent the evening curled up with Seli and a book.  In my experience with most cats, they usually get annoyed when you invade their space and you basically get "talk to the butt" as they stalk away to a new spot.  Seli is the exact opposite; she craves my presence as much as I crave her's.  She wants me with her to the point where she gets annoyed, and loud, if I'm elsewhere.  She is an endless source of comfort to me that I'm not sure many people would understand.  We take care of each other.

The local strawberries are ready for picking here in southeast Michigan.  I have a date Saturday morning with the Farmer's Market for free-range eggs and some local rhubarb and in the afternoon, I'm spinning with friends.  Then Sunday morning I'll pick strawberries and in the afternoon make strawberry and strawberry-rhubarb jam.  I hope it doesn't rain.  I don't care for the consistency of frozen strawberries so I preserve them in jam cooked on the stove.  I have a recipe for homemade strawberry jam that'll knock your socks off.  Yowza!  I'd better make sure I have jars.

Novocain and a new sock

Unless you were born after they started adding flouride to the water, or you have good genetics, it's likely your teeth are crap.  I had my fourth root canal this afternoon.  (Or is it the 5th?  I've lost track.)  Fortunately for me, I have a great dentist.  That man can numb a mouth like nobody's business!  It's been nearly 7 hours since my appointment and some parts are still numb - for which I'm grateful, 'cause once it wears off, I'll be feeling the achy aftermath of getting my tooth reamed out.  Thank God for Advil!  Hey Mom, not only did I not cause I scene in the dentist's office, I didn't bite him either.  Aren't you proud of me?

I decided on the yarn I dyed in class for my current sock.  It's knitting up beautifully and while the yarn is a bit splitty, the fabric is very soft.  I think the yarn base is Henry's Attic Superwash Merino sport weight.  The photo isn't doing it justice.  I used Judy's Magic Cast-on from Knitty.  I had to start and restart four or five times before I finally refused to rip back again.  Somehow I've managed to have a purl row at the very end of the toe and I can't figure out how I did it.  I did it twice, actually, and the second time I was sick of ripping so I just kept going.  I hope it doesn't make for too annoying a ridge against my toe.  I'm having trouble finding a toe-up cast-on I'm happy with.  I though the Magic Cast-on would be my true love but as with all new loves, the rose fades and you get obnoxious purl ridges that you can't explain.  (Not to mention my brain's painful attempts at translating photos and descriptions into physical actions.)  It's possible I only need more practice but just in case, I'm on the lookout for my new cast-on lover.

Possibilities

Our seeds arrived today from the Seed Savers Exchange.  Two of my co-workers and I ordered together.  I'm buying my seed starting supplies this weekend, then I'll be counting down the days until I can start the peppers.  Woot!

I've had some luck on my wool search.  Aphelion clued me in to Forestfibres on ebay (Thanks, Aphelion!) and I hit pay dirt.  Forestfibres sells wool from rare sheep, among other things.   I have some washed fleece winging it's way to me from England.  It's the next best thing to a wool tour.  This has gotten me thinking about my specimen book and it's occurred to me I could make several books just as easily as I could make one.  It's possible that I will make several to sell but there are some issues I'd need to work out first.  (1) My specimen book will likely be a continuous work in progress which means any copy I sell will inevitably be incomplete.  I'll have to determine what breeds will be included in each book that I sell.  (2) The re-design of each page will include space for a photo of each breed.  Copying pictures off the Net, even if it wasn't a copyright infringement, which it is, won't work because the resolution is too low and copies will poor.  This means I'll have to either take the pictures myself or ask if someone has a photo of each breed and can I use it.  I hope to get sheep pictures at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival this spring.  Oh, yeah!  Figuring out the logistics of putting together and selling copies of my specimen book will be a fun exercise.  I wish my sister lived closer so she could help me brainstorm ideas.  I also wish I had Pagemaker or some other page layout program so I could organize my page design more efficiently.  Another puzzle to solve.

These photos are all from the Library of Congress' Flickr page.  Check it out! 

The best laid plans...

I had fully planned on attending my first Knit Night tonight and was rather excited about it.  I usually get home around 4:30 and the knitting didn't begin until 6:30.  Oh, sure, plenty of time.  Right!  I had a doctor's appointment at 3:00 to have my eyes looked at and didn't get out of the darn thing until 4:20.  I needed to get a campus shuttle to take me to the bus stop.  The shuttle shows up, I ask if he's going to the stop I need, he says "yes" and I climb on... only to realize that while he would eventually end up at the stop I needed, we'd be taking the freaking scenic route through town and it would be 30 minutes before we got there.  Can you say, "Angry?"  For some reason, I never occured to the driver that I might not want to take a tour and that he should tell me to wait a couple of minutes for the next bus.  I let him know, at length, that this is what he should have done.  Normally, I would suffer in silence but I had a deadline and even the more or less polite me will offer, when smacked up side the head with a load of Stupid, an opinion or two.  Eventually, I made it back to my bus stop, waited for the bus to show up and then slowly crept to my car because we were now in rush-hour traffic.  By the time I got home, it was nearly 6:00, I was tired, freezing and really cranky and I just didn't feel like sharing that with anyone else.  No Knit Night.  I'll try again next Wednesday.

It's a lousy picture but the dark wool is Polwarth, the white at the top is Merino and on the bottom is Rambouillet.

I'm going to bed now.

Hey, guess what?  I really CAN spin lace-weight!  In honor of her birthday, Beth is having a contest:  the person who spins the longest continuous thread out of 1 ounce of fiber wins more fiber and extra bobbins.  I was inspired to try my hand at spinning lace.  I have no idea if I'll be in the running but I'm very pleased with how fine my thread is.  I discovered that if I'm tired, my thread gets thicker.  Too bad I have to go to work first thing in the morning.

Saturday was a full, fun day.  I had a class at the Spinning Loft in the morning then spent the afternoon with my brother, SIL and my two nephews, J1 and J2.  J1 was celebrating his 6th birthday and when I got there, my brother, nephews and two friends were in the back yard building a snowman.  J2 is about to turn 4 and he was constantly eating snow.  I spent the afternoon hanging out with my family and having a wonderful time. 

After the birthday party, I drove to Rita's for her Chinese New Year Dim Sum party.  As usual, the food was fantastic and I got to catch up with friends that I only see a few times a year.  Rita has been making dim sum and hosting dim sum parties for a long time.  My personal favorites are Crab Rangoon (I think they usually call it Crab Cheese in restaurants... Rita's are better) and anything with sweet red bean paste, like steamed bean paste buns.  Yum!  (Hey, I just remembered I have one in the 'fridge!) 

I may be starting a local spinning group.  I sent an email to the area's spinning club asking if there was a local spin night.  There isn't one yet but I got an email from a woman who organized a knit night, which I'll be attending on Wednesday, and she thinks spin night is a good idea.  We're trying to come up with a venue at the moment.  I thought maybe a library might work.  Does anyone have any other ideas? 

Have you had your mammogram?

If you're of the age to have one and you haven't, or you haven't had one in over a year - what are you waiting for?!  For God's sake, make an appointment.  Breast cancer is pretty curable if it's caught in the early stages.  If not for yourself, do it for the people who love you.  I'm proud to say I had my boobs flattened today and the films came back negative.  Woo hoo!   (Honestly, it really doesn't hurt as much as people might make you think.  Personally, I find it rather uncomfortable, but not at all painful, and I'd much rather have a mammogram that go to the gynecologist.  Just sayin'.)

Blue-faced Leicester from a class.  BFL is a long wool and while it doesn't have as much luster as some of the other long wools, it does have some as you can see from the picture.  I have a beautiful variegated gray BFL fleece on reserve from the upcoming spring shear.  I've heard very good things about the fleeces this woman sells.  Hmm, so far, I have a BFL fleece and another Cormo fleece reserved - both blanketed fleeces so they'll be super clean.  I have a sneaking suspicion I may come home with a fleece from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, too.  Possibly.  Maybe some nice brown wool to blend with the llama I still have under my work table.  I may have to buy a drum carder before I buy a new wheel.  I'm looking at the Strauch Petite drum carder for $341.  With the Petite, you have the option to buy it unassembled, put it together yourself, and save nearly $100 on the assembled price.  The unassembled Petite is almost $350 less than the Strauch Finest and since I'll be carding mostly for fun, I think I'll be happy with the smaller carder.  Man, I can't wait for the fiber festivals to begin!

It's raining cats and dogs!

Does it make me a bad person that I hope it turns to freezing rain so my car is frozen shut in the morning and I can't go to work?  Would it help if I promised to use the day off to do my ironing and clean the house?  Plus, I have a fabulous Polwarth/Kid Mohair blend I want to spin...

I had a large and unpleasant wrench tossed into the middle of my Quest.  I was informed tonight that you can't bring unprocessed wool into the US.  Nuts!  I wanted unprocessed wool for several reasons, one of which was it would be the easiest on the person sending me the wool.  For now anyway, I'm going to have to restrict my search to the US.  You know, I've been wanting to take a wool tour of the British Isles...

Are you familiar with the Toasted Tomato Sandwich?  You need really good bread and good summer tomatoes.  My cousin lives 2 hours north of where we were staying in Florida and went to a farm and picked tomatoes herself.  Oh, my !  Three days in a row I had Toasted Tomato Sandwiches for both breakfast and lunch.  How to make one?  Put the bread in the toaster, when it pops, put mayo on one slice (or Miracle Whip in my case), top that with thick slices of tomato, salt the tomato and top with the second slice of bread.  Eat!  Pure heaven!  I ordered two books on container gardening from Amazon so I can grow my own fab tomatoes this summer.  (Yeah, I know I totally blew my spending diet but hey!  Toasted Tomato Sandwiches!!)  Now I need to find a Super Target so I can buy some of that fabulous Tuscan bread... 

Update:  Weather.com says it's supposed to keep raining until long after I'm at work tomorrow so I'd better go to bed.  Darn weather!

My first pictureless post.  Sorry.  I promise I'll be pictorial tomorrow.