Resolutions Schmezolutions

So, time to redirect from yesterdays ridiculous political ramblings...

I've never been one for New Years Resolutions. If it's a good thing to change in your life, why wait until New Years? Besides huge changes in personality and behaviors I've noticed never seem to work. You can through time make small changes here and there that become big changes.

But beyond that, I just always found them cheezy. But on that note with the end of the holidays upon us I have organized some items in my todo list. In fact, I've already addressed my wanting more spinning time by breaking a large project into several 30minute parts and the last couple days have made myself sit down at the wheel and get a chunk done each day. It's working wonderfully.

The other things I've organized is some lost and forlorn knitting projects. Okay, so maybe forlorn is an exaggeration, or at the very least assignment of human emotion to inanimate knitting projects. Even if they do kind of look forlorn there in the bottom of a forgotten knitting bag, begging for some attention. It's nothing near the YarnHarlot's brown bags per month scheme but that's simply due to my lack of  volume of unfinished projects. I'm not being a snob here, I just deny the chaotic part of myself that queues every appealing pattern on ravelry from actually casting on every appealing pattern. I only allow myself 3 active projects at once. It's a little goal I can cling to to keep some sanity in my life and the Knitting Loki at bay. And because of this little calm creating quirk I cling to desperately at times, I have fewer partially completed projects than some other knitters have. It's not a judgement on them, if anything it shows more than anything that even in the world of knitting, I'm not quite right.

On this note though, some things have been pushed back to allow time to finish Christmas presents, other things have gotten pushed back because I hate didn't enjoy knitting them. And other things just got boring. Last night as I was struggling to work on my socks I started over a month ago I decided to clean up my Ravelry Projects page. There are some long term projects such as my spinning and baby hats that still occur as time allows but they don't need to be listed as "Works in Progress". But there were three things that should have been done a while ago. One, is this damn pair of socks. Actually, they're quite pretty and I hope to have them done within a few days. They honestly just lost out to the time suck of Christmas or they would have been done awhile ago. And I MUST get them done before I cast on the Oliver socks I so desperately want to cast on with some yarn I won in a gift exchange this year. Socks aren't one of my favorite items to knit so I know that having two sets on the needles will drive me a little closer to the edge of actual nutso.

Then there's this to finish. It feels as though I am slitting my wrists with this project but I must get it done because I actually have a friend who wants to buy it. Don't ask me why... I don't know. I've already spouted my feelings towards this project and will not do it again in order to not offend some of this patterns/designers fans. I'm just not one of them.

And I have a project so close, so so close to being done for a class I teach in February that I can taste the fiber content on my tongue. But I just can't make myself finish it. It's boring repetitive knitting and it jsut laughs in the face of my knitting attention deficit disorder. But when these socks are done, I'll take the couple of hours to wipe this one out before sighing deeply and attacking the one I wish I could burn. Maybe I'll spin some before that... Or walk the dogs...

So, with that my redirection is complete. I hope to have at least the pictures of a new pair of socks to show you soon. And with any luck this head cold will be as dead as my love of certain knitting projects by them

The Cliff...

Forgive me, please. I try to not post my personal political views here. I find they just incite anger from some, hearty slaps on the back from others and basically polarize groups of friends, readers, and acquaintances. But I found myself spinning in front of the news last night as I was informed that once again, DC is to busy posturing and playing politics rather than working in politics.

My solution if we fall over the fiscal cliff. All the D.C. game players, yes all of them since they couldn't play nice in the sand box and do their jobs, which is find a way to work together to and move our country forward and up, not backwards and down, can not be paid. They didn't do their job. You're fired, go home or at least not be paid until you can make something work. When I don't perform at my job as an everyday citizen, it's what I can expect. It's time these people who were voted into office are held accountable. You can't do you're job, you can either lose it or not be paid for your time and you can pay for yourself to get to and from D.C. I think it would help add some extra push to finding a solution.

And while I'm spewing, for all the NRA(I own guns, I'm all for American's owning guns and protecting our rights to do so but parts of thr NRA are far to extreme for me to give my money to support, just for general knowledge before I get accused of anything) supporters who are stating we need armed guards in every school, since most of you are way right wing republicans (I know, it's a generalization and I apologize now for those offended), I ask this: Are you willing to raise taxes to pay for this? I'm just asking since it's the conservative repulicans that refuse to raise taxes. I personally worry about making an environment in our schools where a shootout is possible with our children in the crossfire.

Now that I pointed my finger at the Republicans I feel bad. But don't worry, I know the democrats are just as much a part of the issue... And no, I don't want to be the President. I know I can't do any better and truly, those egotistical enough to think they can I don't want anywhere near the office.

With that all said and off my chest, I'm done. Thank you, I'll try not to do it again. And since I' haven't read the paper, other media or turned on the television I'm just guessing some agreement was come to today that makes this whole rant null and void. But it would be logical for me to check that first, and this was a rant, and rant's aren't logical.

See what happens when you want more blogging people! You get illogical rants! Hey, look at that, I can shift blame too, maybe I should run for office.

Snow and a Scare

Not related though, except it's always a crappy night when you have an emergency, no?

Shiela the 17year old matron of the house seems to have maybe ruptured and ear drum. We don't know if the neck issue is related or perhaps she was a bit dizzy and fell though the dog door and hurt her neck. But yesterday Bob got home to find her crying in the garage contracted around and unable to walk or move much as she was trying to make her right ear meet her right butt cheek from what appeared to be a muscle spasm in her neck.

He called me and I packed up my spinning wheel and headed home in our freshly falling snow and slickened roads. She seemed to get over it and eat so we called the vet and rearranged her appointment for her injection so we actually saw a vet today. This morning she was sent home with ear drops and muscle relaxants and my fingers firmly crossed that it's this simple. She's 17, it's not going to be this simple, is it? You can be honest with me, I need some reason about now. 

Actually, this afternoon she seems to be doing well. She came outside while I shoveled snow and let me model the latest knit goods on her.

Isn't she beautiful? Both the scarf and the dog. Just don't let the dog breathe on you and she looks very pretty.

Basically, I'm of the mind that my dog is old. If she's hurting and I can't easily remedy this for her, we'll look at end of life care for her. I just can't see putting an ancient dog through hell and back should it be something serious. She's been to good to me for all these years for me to put her through that. So, if we can make her comfortable (as her arthritis injections seemed to until yesterday) we'll do it, but we're not having major surgery and long recoveries. Hell, at this age how long can she recover before she just runs out of heartbeats?

Anyway, back to more pretty subjects. It snowed. I decided to celebrate such things with walking the boys, shoveling, and getting pictures of some pretty things... I might have spun a little in there too. I'm working on "Basket of Plums" right now. Another very fitting name. When this was still in it's braid it did look like an assortment of plums laying altogether in their reds, purples and nectarines.

Once again, this is a Huckleberry product. I just love it. this one is another Polwarth 75%/Tussah Silk 25% blend. I can't wait to see how it turns out.

Though I seem to be getting more out of the second single than the first. Hmmmm.

This little shawlette which is a late Christmas present (she'll forgive me) is from the "City of Y's) that I got from huckleberry knits in my fiber club. It's a 100% BFL mix made me think of my friend as well as some beads I had stashed away, so I went pattern hunting. I found the Stargazer Shawlette that was designed around some sequined yarn of about the same yardage I had so I ran with it. But I was kicking myself for the beading, oh I am learning to loath beading in my knitting. But it is pretty. I decided to call this one Jewels of the Pines because the yarn made me think of deep pine forests where you see subtle color differences between the different kinds of pines. I know, it's sappy.

Anyway, I need to get showerred and head to work. Hope you all have a wonderful day and spare some kind thoughts and positive energy for Shiela please.

Q.

Merry ***cough, cough, SNEEZE*** Christmas

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Here We spent it with Bob's family after I cooked and he cleaned. I got a cold just in time for it so I hope that with careful sneezing and coughing etiquette and proper hand washing protocols I managed to keep others from getting sick. I hate spreading illness myself.

I can easily deal with a cold, but the fact that I threw an upper rib (2nd) out while sneeze/coughing and it effects my neck and right shoulder it the real hassle oh well, Walgreens here I come.

The wonderful news is that I'm typing this quick entry before starting my day on the iPad Bob got me for Christmas!

Anyway, again I hope the holidays brought joy, cheer, and light to an otherwise dark time of year to both you and yours.

Q.

Bad Blogger, Bad!

It's been a month since I last blogged, and I'm so sorry. It seems as though my holiday funk this year has extended well beyond just my lack of desire to put up the tree or finish the Christmas knitting. And the funk snuck on me as fast as the actual holiday itself. I thought in May as I cast on the first of the Christmas presents that I was good to go and was going to be so ready and and amped for the holidays this year. It seems I was wrong.

Not only have I just this morning finished the last of the Christmas items,

but I have still failed to clean the house, set up the Christmas decorations or even started baking. I am quickly running out of time. The blue and gray one I made up on the fly. It's knit on the bias, seemed then has a garter stitch border added to each side to make it match. I'm considering actually writing this little pattern up and providing it here. We'll see if I ever get around to writing it up. I sometimes have great intentions but never wander back around to getting it done. I much prefer the creative part of things over the documenting the creativity part of it all.

Part of it has been this last week of work. I worked 9 straight days and was so apathetic about my night shifts that even on the longest night, I failed to pick up my knitting to get these last two items done.  But alas, today I decided to kick butt, get them finished, block them, bring up some boxes of decorations and wash the dang stinky dogs.

And the old girl might be one of the reason's I'm in a funk. Don't get me wrong, she seems to be doing just fine, and the new injections she's on for her arthritis seem to be making her feel better. I'm kicking myself for making an old deaf stubborn bitch more spunky, let me tell you. Maybe it's just the fact that I truly doubt she'll see an 18th Christmas, but hey, she's done this amazingly well so far maybe I shouldn't discount her.

To be honest, I don't know why I seem to just not be able to get into the Christmas spirit this year. I have to admit, this year has had some major trials. Maybe it's just that I want the year done and over with so we can start anew with what I hope will be a beautiful wet spring. Ha, I forgot there between gusts of wind that I live in Wyoming but a guy can dream, right?

Well, I basically wanted to let you all know that I'm alive, and we're still kicking here. I just have felt a lack of desire to keep everyong updated on anything. I haven't even been reading other blogs. But I'll get over this little hump and get back on track. I'm actually looking forward to casting on a new project tonight! I think the "have to" knitting has put a damper on wanting to knit. But on that note, I have wanted to spin.

I got the Dragonfly spun up into about 860yds of a wonderful 3 ply yarn

And I got City of Y's spun into about 250yds of a 2 ply that I'm calling House of Yes. This is what I'm going to cast on with tonight. It's actually going to be a late Christmas gift that was kind of inspired earlier this week that I've felt growing excitement for.I'll take holiday cheer wherever I can get it even if it's late in the game. Wish me luck.

Hope you all have a happy healthy holiday, and I hope you had a joyful solstice and return of the light.

A Late Wish of a Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday with your families. Whether they're the families you were born into, or those you chose, may it have been peaceful and quiet to allow you your time of thanks. Mine was spent at work, which I'm totally okay with. I always liked to work the holidays and allow those with kids of their own to spend the time with theirs own families.

As for my last week of work, it's been complicated by my silly mutts.

Emmitt broke a dew claw, again. He broke bad too, from the base it pried up to the point it actually came off on it's own. Poor little shit. So, this last Tuesday I had him at the vet to clean it up and trim the other troublesome claw back when the vet and I decided to take the cuticle and all to keep them from growing back. I thought about this before but it seemed unnecessarily painful to the poor pup. It's bad enough we found him abandoned as a puppy and he sustained some frost bite damage that has caused him to have these issues, but this time around he not only broke the claw but damaged the attached bone.

So I opted them to remove both and clean up the bone splinters in his right paw. Poor kid has stitches and has to keep them wrapped for two weeks, so he bought the cone of shame whenever we're not able to keep and eye on him. I can only imagine it hurts so he is constantly trying to lick them, but since this is the 6th time he's broken them, I think it's for the better. Hopefully this is the last time we ever have to go through this process.

Tuesday night he came to work with me though. Shhhh, don't tell, I may get fired. Never mind, tell anyone you want. The vet couldn't hold him overnight and since he was completely under I decided the best course of action was to pack up his dinner, blanket and water dish and take him with me so I could keep an eye on him. It was a quiet night and he slept most of the time so everything was fine. I vacuumed the next night due to his stress shedding. He's such a good mellow kid anyway I wish I could take him to work regularly. When I entertain ideas of opening my own yarn shop I think he'd be a great shop dog. He gives strangers their space and is just a calm dog.

And speaking of the dogs...

No, no one wet the bed... Well, not with urine anyway. keeping kids off vertain furniture is a battle I decided a long time ago wasn't worth the fighting. Besides, I like to cuddle my kids when in bed and it's just confusing for them to know that they're not allowed on the bed while we're not in it with them, so I simply throw a cheap sheet on it to control hair. That's what you see damp here. Damp with what you may ask?

This. Tucker can't seem to sleep with his tongue in his mouth. That's right, that's a muzzle shaped slobber spot. He looks absolutely ridiculous when he wakes up with a dry tongue and can't seem to keep it in his mouth, but we love the special little shit anyway.

If nothing else, they remind me what I'm thankful for. Their company, the laughs they give me everyday and the excuse to put down what I'm doing and take them for a walk.

I hope you all have a good remainder to your weekend and stay safe out there. Especially if you're partaking in the holiday shopping. I'm going to finish the pumpkin bread and we're heading to the family out near Medicine Bow.

It's True, I Have Fiber Chlamydia

Yep, it's happened. And I know at this point that many of the knitter/spinners that may read this are shaking their head in sympathy for a whole other reason than the other readers here. And many of the others are just confused... Fiber Chlamydia? Yes, that's right, fiber clap is here. Moths... More specifically, their little crawling larvae.

This is some Llama that I picked up along the way that I've been working with the last two days. The very last foot of roving or so I found the little bastard as I drafted it onto my wheels bobbin. There was some language that Bob mentioned was not my usual spinning vocabulary.

So today, I cooked it. I cooked it good. Then I froze it... Then I cooked and froze it again. That is how I know to get rid of pesky little insect buddies because most eggs and larvae don't like wild swings in temperature. The sub-zero freezer to 180 degree's of the ovens lowest setting is about as wild as I can do with out singeing the finished yarn. I hope it works but it will still be kept in isolation as we watch for further signs of infestation.

Actually, this came from an outdoor festival and since between two batches of roving I only saw the single little worm and no other crawlers or eggs as I drafted out a fairly small gauge yarn, I'm not truly one hundred percent positive this was a wool eater. There was no obvious damage to the fiber and PLENTY of organic material in it for the little bugger to munch on should he be a vegetarian.

See, that's about a 10'th of the crap that I picked our of this yarn, or that the spinning process pushed out. I had to vacuum after each spinning session.

Bob got a little upset by this encounter after he found out what my cussing was about. Now, like any non-knitter or less experienced fiber skank he thought my cussing was directed towards the farm this came from. Earlier in the spinning session as I once again within 30 seconds had to stop to pick out crap from the yarn, there was some llama rancher directed cussing. But no, this time my cussing was directed towards my piss poor luck.

You see, getting moths, larvae, or carpet beetles to the yarn snob and fiber hoarder that I am, is the inevitable equivalent to sunset boulevard hooker who doesn't use protection coming down with burning while urination symptoms of deeper issues. Yes, that's right, by pulling in large amounts of of fluffy animal fiber stuff, I partake in risky fiber behavior. I try to minimize the impact by keeping different batches in good plastic bags (think of them as shopping condoms), use plastic storage bins and inspect my stash regularly always vigilant for the little bastards. Yes, sometimes I look like a chimp grooming yarn for, oh let's call them yarn crabs. But unfortunately, sometimes a bit of bad luck comes your way no matter what you do to combat it. And can I complain? Well, I could, but damn if I didn't set up an entire buffet sans the good silver and twinkle lights so am I surprised that the little buggers hit the hairy Golden Corral? Nope, not at all... So baking the yarn is what happens from my little YTD(Yarn Transmitted Disease) issue.

And speaking of creating a good little yarn crab buffet, I got the "Dear Dark Heart" fiber from October's fiber club done!

In the words of the Sleep Talkin' Man, "If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, behold bitches!" It's lovely. 4oz of a wonderful 75%BFL and 25%Tussah Silk blend that gave me a finished 2 ply sportish weight 200yds. I think this one will stay in my stash awaiting for the perfect project.

And now I've moved on to my DragonFly. I have 12oz of this Polwarth/Silk blend to play with and as you can see, I am spinning it out very thinly in the hope of geting a lot of yardage in a 3 ply finished yarn.

Here's hoping.

Oh, and regards to the silly cat that was seen in one of the last postings... That's one of the heated dog beds that I bought for the old girl. The dog that is, that Smudge has deemed are truly hers.

She worships them. Can you tell? Now if only you'd scratch her chin.

Slowly Rising (and it's not bile this time)

I apologize for the lack of contact. I've been sick. Damn sick. But let us discuss the important things first and get back to that later.

I haven't felt up to knitting much over the past few days but seem stuck on spinning. I got the first batch of Indian Corn plied and just this morning finished spinning up the last single of it. It has to sit for a few days with it's partner now before I go ahead and ply them to hopefully I end up with about 600yds of matching yarn. Fingers crossed.

I have now attacked this last months fiber of the month.

A beautiful Blue Faced Leicester (BFL) and Tussah Silk blend called "Dear Dark Heart". I am spinning it up very fine. I doubt I'll end up with a true lace weight after plying but I'm trying to broaden my spinning skills and since it has such a long staple trying to go very small with it. As usual, Scarlet has done a wonderful job.

The cat is just waiting for me to leave the fiber unattended.

Before I came down with the gut virus from hell I cleared some bobbins and boy am I happy I did. It gave me room to play while recovering. And it let me play with the yarn swift a friend had her husband make me. She heard me whining that my niddy noddy created a skein to big to fit on my traditional umbrella style yarn swift. It's a wonderful little addition to my fiber toys!

Now today with the freezing temperatures, occasional snow drifting down, I'm more than content to sit inside bundled up (I've been cold for days now, despite layers, electric blankets and cuddling dogs and a purr angel) and spin to my hearts delight though I feel a definite nap coming on.

So, back a subject, I've been sick. So sick that I've missed 4 days of work, had two trips to the doc, a round of antibiotics and finally a trip to the hospital to have IV fluids since I was heaving most anything I swallowed back up, and if it did stay down, it didn't stay in for long if you get my drift. Basically I had many of those moments where you sit on the toilet with a trashcan between the knees. So much in fact I had to get a few liters put on, but as of last night I had held down solid food twice and had only one herking episode with water and seemed to be peeing normally again (Yay for good peeing!).

But, with all the good news, I still don't feel like wandering out in public. Mainly, I'm still tired enough that I don't think it's safe to drive especially with the newly laid down layers of ice nor do I imagine my patience with humanity is restored. The election may be done but people still feel the need to announce their political opinions to the general population assuming that we all agree with their view of the world. And here I will note that being in Wyoming it is a generally republican air and often a bit racist. Four years ago I thought if I was sent another racist "boy" text after the election that I would shove the offending texters phone where they could text while eating without using their thumbs to do so. On that note, I find Democrats who feel the need to announce their general political views just as irritating. I tend to be more issue focused over party focused and to be honest haven't been happy with any of our options in the last couple of elections. However; you will never see me announcing my political choices in my yard with a cardboard sign or with a bumper sticker on my car. It's my opinion and I tend to keep it to myself when it comes to politics, but as many of you know, that's one of the few times I do so. I have occasionally thought about wandering around the neighborhood while walking dogs and stealing other peoples signs and placing them all in my own yard. No matter their party affiliation or weird ideas announced in their campaign just to make people wonder a bit and just to encourage voting in general. Maybe next time...

Political Signs Came from internet search engine results and in no way reflect my political views or offer readers insight into how I voted in 2012.

Well, on that note, I'm going to have a bit of a lie down. I'm tired, again.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween is my favorite "holiday" and I just had to wish you all a good one. If you're going out, stay safe, if you're staying in, have a good time.

Me and Angeline Jolie are going out... Don't take this too personally, I actually like Angelina Jolie, or I should say have nothing against her and enjoy her acting and admire her charitable work, this was more an inside joke for a friend and her husband.

And too bad I won't be in, my pumpkin lanterns will be of waste.

Which is a shame. Have I mentioned I love Halloween? We unfortunately have no trick or treater's to speak of so I'm going to a friends party where they have TON's of the little ghouls and goblins.

And as for the bright lanterns, we have too much wind here for traditional candles to work so I use some little LED lamps.

Have fun tonight...

A Touch of Class to the Fall

I finally got Celaeno done! Woohoo! The last time I spoke of this little number I stated that the last row I had done had taken a couple hours and I had watched the entirety of the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel in the time it took me to bead and knit each bloody three hundred and some odd stitches. Well, that pales in comparison to the final row that you bead, knit and then cast off each stitch. Five hours. No, really; five, but she was worth it.

 

Don't you agree? It almost makes me wish I could pull off wearing her...

Hopefully she does a good job pulling in the bidding dollars for the Montessori School fund raiser. That's where she was destined to end up from the time I saw the pattern for her. 

Anyway, as you might be able to tell from that top picture, it's a blustery fall day (Winnie the pooh, I love you) here in Casper. The perfect day to sit and do some spinning.

And speaking of lovely things, this has been a joy to spin. Not pre-draft mind you, but the spinning part has been wonderful.

This is again from Huckleberry Knits though not part of my fiber club. This was form a long slow night that I ended up playing with my credit card online. Always a dangerous proposition but can rarely go wrong when one is playing with fiber dying prodigy's fibers. At least that's my opinion thus far.

I think the name of this wool and silk blend is perfect. The blend of yellows, browns, russets and purples reminds me exactly of indian corn.

Yesterday I also finished my last fiber club installment of cranberry autumn which is fitting for today. It makes me a bit homesick though because just looking at it makes me think of walking the trails back home smelling the pungent aroma of frosted cranberries. I think maybe next year I need to go home for the fall, not Christmas or my birthday, but the fall where I can hike above the tree line and wander through birch and alder stands smelling those longed for scents.

Well, I guess I should stop wasting time and get to cleaning house for the gathering tomorrow evening for homemade pizza and pumpkin carving. Can't wait! I may not be able to do anything about the longing for the natural smells of home, but I surely can alter the smell of my house with freshly opened pumpkin and roasted seeds.

May you all have a lovely Sunday and great week ahead. If you don't hear from me before, have a wonderful All Hallows Eve!

Off To Bed. Shortly That Is.

Whew, my work week is done, and as is only fitting, it ended with a bang of a night. But now, I sit at home finishing up my handspun yarn knit cap and get to have an entire week off. So, before I quickly fill my time up, I thought I'd throw together a post.

Here in Casper we are a bit chilly. Our first snow was brought to us by a cold front that has hung around a couple days dropping our temperatures below freezing and dusting us with our first snow that amazingly stuck. Unfortunately it also gave us a sheeting of ice on our roads last night that made my evening's work a bit tricky. One accident alone resulted in 4 patients from a single car roll over. After sticking around just long enough to slow us down though, as usual in the high desert country in Wyoming we'll be bouncing back up to the fifties and seeing our snow either melt or get blown to Nebraska this weekend.

In an effort to keep warm, I broke out my hand spun yarn (some of my best thus far) from my fiber club and dove into making myself a hat that comes down over my ears. IT's a color that I'm not sure works for me, but I do like the finished product!

And while we're on the topic of knitting, I got Celaeno done!

For a while there I was worried I wouldn't get this little shawlette done. The beading about killed me. In fact the last row took hours and the only good thing I can say about it was that even though I was beading every other stitch, I was also working a cast off with it so I was done at the end of it (4 hours guys, it took me 4 bleeding hours!).

I promise I'll get some more pictures up when she's done blocking and dry. I hope to have an opportunity for photos at Blooming Needles grand opening tomorrow. We'll see, I'll keep the fingers crossed. The last finished shawlette I took to the shop to other knitters tried to steal.

Now, I think I better go do something with the kids before I fall asleep since I've been up since 2 yesterday afternoon. Have a great weekend.

Snow!

I've been getting homesick reading my friend Betsy's blog and am so excited that this morning there is a fine if not fully frozen snow drifting down from the sky. So much so that I ran to the store on the way home and got turkey and egg noodle soup makings and got the crock pot warming before heading to bed. See, I'm so excited about this that I'm blogging instead of sleeping!

Some people...

This is what I've been working on.

I hope to have it done soon and better pictures of it.

S&MMM...

Have you ever worked on a project that seemed to laugh at you and your every attempt to finish it? You work diligently and yet you never seem to get closer to it's end. When you think you're almost there, you realize there's another chunk you have yet to even start chipping away at? Through all this work, though you may be tired, you find that you're not truly irritated by it, because even when you hate to admit it, you realize you're enjoying the item.

Well, S&MMM was that project for me. She's finally done after I sat up refusing to go to bed the other night until she was done. I finished the last chart and happily pulled out the pattern only to realize that I overlooked that she has a knit on edge. Arrrgggh! So, away I went at 11pm refusing to quit until I had cast off every singe one of those 220 some odd stitches. But when she was done, oh my was she pretty.

Now, let's hope her recipient thinks so too. The person she is going to looks wonderful in deep jewel blues and chocolate browns and I think this little shawl is the perfect thing to class up a pair of dressy jeans. No?

Oh, and here's a shot of the kids on the way home from South Dakota after we hit the Reptile Gardens in Rapid City.

They actually allow dogs on leash inside so I took the four of them in. We sat through a snake presentation and all our snake training paid off. There was no whining, barking or trying to get to the snake, and when they brought out the prairie rattler Tucker tried to crawl in our laps and Sullivan quaked like he was trying to poop out a peach pit. Good dogs, that's what I want when snakes are present. You don't mess with them and give them their room. Shiela of course is deaf as a door nail and didn't know there was a thing to be concerned about.

Last night I went to some friends house for dinner and picked the last of the apples I could reach in the tree to take with me. These are the few I have left. They are so wonderful and crisp. Next year if we're still around I'm going to see about some options to get more of them and make my own alcoholic cider. Doesn't that sound wonderful?

Last night I blew my fingers out finishing up spinning up some silk that I plan on giving as a thank you gift. I never realized how hard that stuff is on the hands. I've sat and spun on other fibers for longer but never had I gotten blisters from it. I'm hoping it's dry enough to give to her tonight and I hope to get better pictures.

The second colorway batch I bought to ply with the blue wasn't near as good a quality of hankies and therefore I couldn't draft it out as finally so there on the left is the single ply blue still. I got about 170 yards of plyed and another 200 yards of the unplyed. Not much I can do about it and it's still wonderful. Now I can say I know how to spin silk.

Anyway, I have to get ready for work. Hope you all have a great weekend!