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!
What a roller coaster post!!! First, I'm so glad you guys weren't hurt (or killed)! Eek! And it's good that it happened so you'd find out about your brakes and get them fixed. But boo - you're not coming to SOAR! But I totally understand, I'm questioning my own ability to go, especially since the hotel is full (hey, you don't have a room you could transfer to me, do you?). And yay! for the spinning wheel! OMG - New Zealand is where Majacraft is...you don't think...! How cool would that be?!?!
Um yeah, we need to have these talks face to face cause I'm sure this comment is getting annoying!
And that is beautiful roving, scrumptious. Who dyed it?
Posted by: elizabeth | July 18, 2008 at 10:46 AM