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.