Life's Ups and Downs

First the bad news - my grandpa died Monday. I will be in Wyoming this weekend (for the services) and will try to post if there is access. He was my oldest grandparent (born in '18 I believe) and a rugged guy. He was a miner and then built the family home (which my grandma designed, as she was an architecture major) in the evenings after his shift. He spent the last two years in a home, with Alzheimer's. I am sad that I never managed to get out to visit. I think the last time I saw him was at the family reunion when I was in college ('95?). I am bad with the living but always manage to make it to funerals. How wierd is that? Anyway, my Aunt Margaret send the notice on Sunday morning that he had been failing for a few days and I got to spend all day Sunday and Monday thinking about / remembering him before I got the note that he passed. It was peaceful and full of morphine and there was family around him, which is really the best of all worlds.

I really didn't mean to be away this long. Somehow time just... gets away. I have been keeping busy! We had the knitting Olympics at Knit N Stitch last on the 9th and it was great fun. I registered Mandy's unfinished birthday sweater as my Olympic Challenge project (can I finish it by this Saturday, the end of the Games?). Last weekend was pretty quiet. Mostly I stayed home weaving and enjoying the weather. I finally broke the windows open where the painters painted them shut (or open, depending) *cough* 2 1/2 years ago *cough*. The cats enjoy laying on the windowsills and I enjoy squirting them with the water bottle. The weaving is progressing nicely and the cotton spinning is a nice change when I get tired of the weaving part. You can see the 5 or so tea towels that are already done filling up the cloth beam. Here Dozer is filling in as a footwarmer. I am still spinning on the wheel - I finished the "Yule" yarn and plied it up and found time to spin some bulky alpaca and some green/ navy /burgundy merino that has been marinating in the stash for a while (quarters included for scale). I guess both of those bits of roving were about 5 years old now. Geez. I also went through the box of finished yarns (stored in ziplocks) and have been washing / setting the twist on all of those this weekend. It is a great feeling to look and see skeins and skeins of possibilities instead of piles and piles of stash that is begging to be spun. Friday I went to the Pasadena Bead and Design show. Stash was enhanced! I went to pick up some cotton sliver, but there was none to be found. I did pick up some 60/2 laceweight (cobweb really) yarn from RedFish Dyeworks and some beautiful merino & silk roving too (it is a little washed out in the pictures). I grabbed that one straight off and did not let it go.

From Nancy at Chameleon Colorworks I acquired some Optim (stretched merino) in the "Ophelia" colorway. It is very soft and shiny and a real pleasure to spin. I am one bobbin into it already - the plan is to make a 3 ply (non chained). At Carolina Homespun I snapped up some yak & silk roving (words cannot describe the yum factor here) and some regular silk roving (not exciting enough for a blog picture).I even bought a bead for Emily's baby shower this weekend. It is all hush-hush though.

Well, I had better scamper off and start some laundry so I have something to pack. Does anyone think I can get a laptop, my knitting and 4 days worth of clothes into one carry-on bag?

Monday AGAIN?

I actually sat down with the spinning wheel this weekend and got some spinning done. At our RiverSpinners guild meeting Saturday, Dizzy Ruth guided us in making up spinning sample cards. We spun lengths of singles on each of the different whorls on our wheels, at loose, regular and high tension. Then we folded them back on themselves and attached to index cards with notes about what whorl and tension combination we used to get that yarn. It was good practice in both record keeping and making a repeatable yarn.


Then Sunday Mr. Fixit worked on the transmission from the tractor he found at a yard sale on Saturday. It was quite impressive, what with the hammering and blowtorching and welding. I occupied myself with plying up a bunch of yarns that I wound off of some Ashford bobbins that had been lying around for... far too long. I accepted that I was not going to pick these projects back up, and the best thing to do was to ball up the singles and ply from both ends of the balls. Now I have a bunch of obediently labelled skeins of useable yarn AND 4 empty bobbins. The chain-plied silk came out particularly lovely, and I think the brown romney will go well with the yarns that are set aside for The Rug Project. Speaking of TRP, Denise has loaned me Deborah Chandler's weaving video and I hope to watch that this week and get the loom warped and the yarn wound.


Knitting progress was also made on Rum Runner sock #1. I am making a stockinette foot, so it is a great travel sock.


We have been watching movies lately; some good, some not so good. "Gosford Park" is always a favorite of mine, and I caved in and bought the dvd. The 'making of' features were very entertaining. "Brokedown Palace" fell into the less-than-fabulous category. I picked holes in the plot, there were some really slow sections, and the ending was not very satisfying. "The Tesseract" (with the esteemed Johnathan Rhys-Meyers *yum*) was so scattered that I just gave up halfway through and mailed it back. It is told in a disjointed manner, which I can accept, but I just couldn't relate or feel for the characters. "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was fun to watch.

Hate. My. Job. I hope everyone buys lots of fiber so I can quit.

Other than that, things are going well. Tearing thru library books (almost done with "The Boy with Two Heads"), the car is running again thanks to a sparkly new alternator, yoga is relaxing and rewarding even when sweat is running down me, knitting on socks like gangbusters, and did a little laundry this week.

Tonight is an Open Spinning night at the studio (come join us) and I am really looking forward to it. I love chatting and relaxing with everyone. I intend to finish plying the sock yarn tonight - it has been waiting a long time.

After Open Spinning I am trucking down to San Diego to visit Pat and have some (far too much) whiskey and beer. mmmmm. It has been that sort of week. I think a little time in the aviary with the birds will do me good too. Or a nice sit down outside wildcat canyon. I will keep my eyes peeled for new fiber colorways (hmmmm.... i think snow leopard or cape wild dog will be nice).

Then I come home Sunday in time for Ashtanga yoga. I am really ready. I am taking my book down to SD with me so I can do a short form on Saturday morning. And my wheel. Perhpas I can swatch for the next sweater (shhh... don't tell the one that isn't done yet).

Happier already, just thinking about the weekend!