So many hobbies!

Three more days

All my yarn was packaged up and sent by Priority Mail to Maryland on Monday.  While I reminded myself during the day to take a picture of the Cormo yarn, in the rush and anxiety of getting everything together and packaged for mailing, I forgot.  Sorry.  You'll get to see it when I get it back.  Of course, now I'm completely paranoid that the package will get lost or will show up a day late (it has to get there no later than the 30th).

This afternoon, I bravely ventured into my icky, spidery crawl space to retrieve the cooler that's been in there for the past 10 years.  I was rewarded for my bravery with the rain canopy I forgot was in there.  Yay!  This means I don't have to buy one.  Eventually.  The discovery is especially nice since they're predicting rain all weekend at the Festival.  Camping in the rain is no big deal but cooking in the rain sucks.  I'm hoping for a reprieve Monday morning so I'm not packing up in the rain.  That sucks even more.  Regardless, I'm so excited about this weekend I can hardly stand it.  Oh, if only I could leave tomorrow!  If things go as well as I'm hoping, next year I may leave on Thursday so I can have an extra day of camping.

Any suggestions on what I can cook for dinner?  Saturday night I'm having spaghetti but I'm drawing a complete blank on Sunday night.  I'm having cereal for breakfast and I'll have carny food for lunch but that leaves me with one unplanned dinner.  I really want to break in my new pots and pans.  Please, my peeps, give me something good!

The sun is back!

 

Few things make Seli happier than baking in the sun.  She was very happy this weekend.

The 3-ply Cormo yarn became a 2-ply over the weekend.  The third ply would have taken too long to spin.  Naturally, I forgot to take a picture of it before dumping it in a bath.  I'll try and remember to take a picture tomorrow before I box it up.

I put my tent up yesterday which was no mean feat on a windy day.  It's a four-person tent which means when flat, the darn thing acts like a sail.   Even after it was completely up, it was blowing around the yard.  Definitely going to have to stake it or it'll end up in the next camp site. 

 

I've looked for biodegradable dish soap but the closest I've found was soap that, once dumped in a hole in the ground, can be broken down by natural bacteria in the dirt.  Maybe that's the stuff I'm looking for.  Anyone know? 

Skein contest entries

I've picked out five skeins to enter in the Maryland skein contest.  I'm still working on the Cormo 3-ply - yesterday I carded up more rolags - but I can't tell yet if I'll have it done by Sunday night.  Before I go to bed Sunday, I need to have the yarn boxed up and ready to take to the post office.  So here are the contenders:

 

The cashmere/Polwarth 2-ply.

 

The Merino/bamboo 2-ply.

 

The BFL 2-ply.

 

This is the Merino/Tencel singles that you've only seen on the bobbin and that was months ago. 

 

And finally, the spindle spun and plied Targhee yarn.  I've got my fingers crossed that it'll take the Best Spindle Spun Yarn prize.  I'm hoping for a really cool ribbon.  I'm pretty sure I've mentioned before that I was probably a magpie in a former life - I'm ridiculously attracted to bright and shiney things.  Like ribbons.

Time enough for another one?

 

Val inspired me to pull out my hand cards and start carding up the Cormo hogget fleece.  I'm hoping I'll have time to spin up a 3-ply in time to submit it at MSWF.  I started Sunday and I've spun all the rolags I made.  Tomorrow at Knit Night I'll card up more.  The fleece is so soft and silky.  It's pure pleasure to work with it.  I'm scouring more so I don't run out of clean locks.

(Bloody hell!  I've got a stinking migraine!  On the plus side, I don't get the pain side of migraines but on the annoying-when-I'm-trying-to-type side, I get visual disturbances that are damned annoying and make it really difficult to see what I'm typing.  Please forgive any typos.)

 

These are the tomato seeds I planted Friday night.  I noticed Monday night that they'd germinated.  Three days to germinate.  Those are ome mighty viable seeds.  I highly reocmmend the Seed Savers Exchange.  Can't see the sprouts?  Try this one:

 

Aren't they cute?

I'm going to bed now.  I can't stand keeping my eyes open any longer.  Stupid migraine!

More spring beauty

 

I love my daffs!

Spring!

I finished my outside chores Friday so I'm all set for the planting of the veggies.   I bought another big pot for my future zuchini plant and finally got the huge, heavy bag of potting soil out of my trunk (it's been there since last spring because it was too heavy for me to lift and I didn't need more dirt).  This year's crop will be tomatoes, green beans, zuchini (does "zuchini" have one "c" or two?) and basil.  In the rectangular planter at the bottom of the picture, I'm trying to decide between lettuce and pansies.

 

Last year's dirt was dug out of the window box, replaced with fresh and planted with pansies - Seli's favorite.

 

I was standing in my kitchen Sunday morning working on breakfast and I saw a bird land on one of last year's nests in the tree outside my window.  It hopped into the nest and started moving around as if trying out the fit.  After a bit of testing, it flew away.  I couldn't help smiling because it was obviously trying on a new shoe and testing the fit and comfort.  I don't know what kind of bird it was but I'm pretty sure I remember reading somewhere that some birds recycle old nests.

It was a very good thing I decided to get a check-up for my car before my trip to Maryland because one of the serpentine belts was virtually shredded and it would have been a miracle if it didn't break during the trip.  If your serpentine belts breaks, the engine stops.  I would have been much too far away to call Dad for help... although I probably would have called anyway just to make him laugh  ("Dad, can you come get me?"  "Where are you?"  "Southeastern Pennsylvania."). 

The rest of the weekend was spent plying the Targhee singles.  And when I say the rest of the weekend, I mean it.  I nearly lost the will to live before I finished and you all know how much I love plying.

 

That picture doesn't really tell you just how big that cop is.  I weighed it once I was finished and the scale read 4.5 ounces.  The spindle is 1.5 ounces which means I've got 3 ounces of plyed yarn on that thing!  Let me tell you, by the end, it felt more like 3 pounds.  And I get to do it all again for the second sock.  Right.  I'm starting to rethink that idea.  Maybe I'll make it a cowl instead.

How about some spring beauty.  These guys are my favorites.

Still amazed

I had dinner with my niece Tuesday night.  Laurel is a junior at MSU and my job took me to Lansing for the day.  We met at a sushi place across from campus.  Once again, I was amazed at just how smart and cool my niece is and just how much I love and adore her.  She's beautiful, has an amazing singing voice, great taste in music, a hilarious, snarky sense of humor and wonderful self-confidence.  She's pretty special and I'm thrilled that she's part of my life.  Love you, Niece.

Aunt

Still spinning

 

All I've been doing this week is spin and I'm almost done with this cop.  I'll have finished yarn to show Sunday night.  It'll be my fourth skein to enter in the skein contest at Maryland.

I ordered some camping equipment for my trip to Maryland and it arrived during the week:  a tent and a Coleman stove.  This weekend I get to play with both of them - trial runs to make sure they work the way they should.  Well, as soon as I buy some propane I'll get to play with the stove.  The tent just requires 10 or 15 minutes and the back yard.  Not so much fun will be hanging out at Midas while my car gets an I'm-going-on-a-roadtrip checkup.  Here's hoping it won't be a big deal.  At least I know my brakes are fine since I had the entire braking system replaced last year.

I really need to carry my camera with me at all times.  Tuesday I stopped at the Spinning Loft to pick up the bulky flyer for my Elizabeth and hung out for a while.  One of Beth's friends came in with her new Bosworth Attache Charkha and spun an incredibly fine cotton thread.  I sat there wishing I'd brought my camera.  I need to get one of those tiny ones that you can carry in your pocket so when I find/see cool things, I can share them.  The charkha was cool.

A nice relaxing Sunday

Once I finished my taxes that is.  After that, it was pretty low key.  There was a fair amount of snuggling and napping with Seli.  It was beautiful outside:  sunny with a clear blue sky.

Saturday I finished spinning the first cop of Targhee singles and wound them off onto my spindle Lazy Kate:

 

And then started the next cop.  My spindle box will be my constant companion for the rest of the week.  The white is finished and I've started the palest purple shade.

 

Even though I have way too much roving, I couldn't resist this one.  It's from Creatively Dyed Yarn purchased from The Loopy Ewe.  It's Merino and Seacell.  Isn't it gorgeous?!

 

I finally got around to the baking I wanted to do last weekend.  My hand of bananas was brown and shriveled and perfect for banana nut bread.  All I did was rip off one end and squeeze the banana out of the skin.  Easy peasy.  I want badly to slice off a piece but I'm saving it for my very lucky co-workers.  It makes Monday mornings a little bit easier.

A slow week

 

Sorry, peeps, I've got nothing.  I'm throwing up the shell shadowbox (those are Buttercup Lucines, BTW) so you have something to look at even though this post is mostly a bust.  I love the Buttercups and even though I have a couple hundred of the darn things, I can't pass one on the beach without picking it up.

I've run into some snags with my trip to the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival.  The hotel where we had our reservation closed permanently in January.  Yup, we currently have no place to sleep.  The search will begin again.  Wish us luck.  This trip is very important to me because I plan on taking sheep photographs for my slowly-developing breed specimen book.  The Maryland show is the largest sheep and wool festival in the country and will have the largest variety of breeds in one spot.  I've given myself the deadline of mid-October by which I need to have a sellable version of my specimen book.  I've picked mid-October because the Fiber Expo, which is local, is at the end of October.  I plan on renting a booth/stall at the Fiber Expo to sell my roving, spindle boxes and specimen books.  Again, wish me luck.  I haven't given up my dream that one day I can quit my regular job and work for myself and this specimen book is another step along the way.

Saturday is my guild meeting in the morning and afternoon and in the evening, I've been invited to a knitting/Wallace & Gromit-watching party.  Should be fun.  Sunday, alas, I have to make myself do my taxes.  I hate dealing with numbers and my taxes and I always procrastinate until the last moment.  I know.  I have issues.  I'm working on it.