Thursday

Shearing is on hold again. Sometimes, life just gets in the way.

I went to K-mart after work and bought Mom's birthday present and got some more Christmas presents taken care of...didn't even do the layaway.

Then I went to Best Choice Market. I have been craving a steak for some time now. I was able to pick up 2 small rib eyes, 2 lbs of ground round, a bag of honey crisp apples and some feta cheese dip for less that $30. I was happy about that.

I am munching on the feta cheese dip right now for dinner. This weekend I will feast on steak. Yum!

My knitting group is planning a separate get together in order to do some sewing. We are all hauling our machines to the church and we have several patterns picked out. That reminds me, I need to make sure it is on my google calendar.

Then, I am going to finish watching survivor, do some pre-drafting of my mill end white wool and try some spinning tonight! Woo Woo!

Fiber goodies, shearing, and mill ends

This is Sue Sue in her new hat. Love it on her! Sorry girl, it made the blog. :)

Today was partly sunny. Big deal you say? Hey, its a big deal here in Michigan! I really didn't realize how long it had been since I had seen the sun until today.

When I came home, I didn't want to stay in the house. I picked up sticks in the yard, did a very small amount of raking, and took Sadie for a walk down around the corner. We couldn't go far because Mister, my cat, was following us...way behind us. I didn't like him running down the middle of the road, even my quiet, low traffic road.

I spent my day off on Monday spinning. This mill end wool roving I ordered online is super soft. It's a little slick, I dare say, almost like the merino top I had trouble with in class. It took me a little while to get used to it. For $7.50 a pound, I would order it again in a heartbeat! But, as it is, I have more than enough wool to keep me busy all winter, and I will be bringing home two black fleeces on Friday.

Update: While I was updating the blog, I heard from LC Guy - we may shear tomorrow (Thursday) instead. As I said, it was clear today and he needs a couple days without rain. I can not imagine shearing a wet, dirty sheep. He thinks this sheep could have a staple length of up to 9". Yeah, I am excited! Can't wait to see it! And I enjoy learning about sheep care and shearing from him, he loves it and you can tell.

One thing I have learned is that, for me, I need to buy my roving in pound increments. In the beginning, I was using a spindle and 4oz balls of roving were plenty to spin. But I don't know what to do with 50 yards of yarn! Too little for a project for myself. I don't wear hats. I have started keeping track of all my spinning yardage in a notebook. Perhaps I can eventually use the whole kit and kaboodle on a sweater yoke or cuffs as an accent?

I am including some more pictures of my stuff from the expo below.

Wild Horses Colorway - LOVE IT!
Copperpot Woolies



A button I have been using as a diz
It is a bit blurry, sorry!
It is made from a sheep antler.
The craftsman uses a band saw!



My combs! This is my deal of the festival. I bought it from Chickasaw Farm and I ended up inviting myself to their shearing day in the spring. I always love visiting with them and I always find something in their booth - at MFF it was a niddy noddy made from PVC.

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These are photos of the mill end roving I bought. The blue is a superwash, the white is an unknown, but very, very soft wool.

Home from A2 FE !

Day 2

We slept in and had a leisurely day wandering around the vendor area at the Fiber Expo. We did more visiting and networking than buying. I did get a really good deal on a set of used combs from one of my favorite vendors.

I had a mini reunion with a friend I made last year at NML&WF. We have kept in touch through Ravelry. She found me, yakking with a vendor, and flashed her Ravelry button at me, I loved it!

Finally hit the road around 3pm and made it home around 6. Then I unloaded and went to pick up Sadie. She had spent the weekend being a mischievous little husky. She was up on the dining room table, ate turtle food, and when they moved it to the kitchen counter, she managed to get it down from there as well. Even managed to walk on their laptop keyboard and mess up their email account. I may have to take some drastic measures....counter surfing dogs can be very destructive and I seem to recall it is a bad habit to break.

This is short, LC Guy set an 8:30am shearing time for tomorrow and I am tired. I'm going to grab something to eat and hit the hay. I took photos of my fiber finds and will post them soon.

A2 FE

Day 1 of the Ann Arbor Fiber Expo.

Having a great time, wish you were here!

It was a very busy day of classes. This photo was taken in my blending class. I really enjoyed this class. It gave me a chance to be creative. It wasn't like my usual spinning classes where I am trying to learn a certain technique or finish a step so I can move onto the next step.

My spinning class was cool. It is a completely different technique. I am still new enough to spinning that I haven't developed my own technique or some other bad habit. So learning long draw or air spinning isn't messing with me too bad. Yet. I have all winter to develop new "habits".

I was disappointed to find out my class for tomorrow is canceled. But on the bright side, I can relax and wander around. There is a Gun Show next door and I want to go try out some pistols. Yes, I am serious.

My com-padres are fibering away and I want to play too. I am going to comb the angora rabbit, Br'er Rabbit. He is starting to blow his coat. I also have some loaded combs to diz. I will go into more detail later.

The blue blob is actually a beautiful blend I created in my blending class.

About time!

I have been meaning to do this for awhile and something always comes up. Either I am too tired, tired of the computer, or would rather be doing something else....lately, that means spinning.

I worked over 11 hours today. I am trying to cram in all my hours (42.5) before 2:30 on Friday. I did not expect to work that many hours today, but that's how it worked out - and it is a good thing. Now I can work regular hours the rest of the week - and only have one hour to make up. I will do that tomorrow evening.

Tomorrow I need to take Sadie to Brandi's house for the weekend. Their schedule is so crazy, it just works out better to drop her off earlier in the week. Sadie will love it, but I don't know how I will do! I could take that time to replace the hook for the zip line she straightened yesterday. Hm.

Sadie has been the center of attention lately. I took her to dog scout's fall outing 2 weeks ago. She had a great time...so did I. I couldn't get her to pull a cart, nor did I expect her to do that first time out. We played Tic-Tack-Toe with the dogs. The board was 9 mats laid out on the floor with plenty of room for owner and dog. One at a time the captain would direct their team to a place on the board. Sitting was a "X" and laying down was an "O". That was chaos! As each dog was added and given the command you had to hold your dog's attention on you and keep them in the proper stance. If you didn't and the dog assumed the position of the other team, it became the other teams x or o. One couple played on opposite teams and the dogs were used to taking commands from both of them. Whoever was "played" before the other was in trouble when the other one came on the board. The first dog would listen to the 2nd owner's command and fall out of their teams stance and become the other team's mark on the board. It was rainy and wet out, but I still managed to take Sadie out on the trails. We wandered down to the horses. I want to get Sadie familiar with them before we go riding - hopefully sometime this fall.

My free time is spent developing my online content for my 8th graders or knitting presents. Of course, because I don't have time to, all I want to do is spin. I am still playing with the long draw method I learned at NML&WF. I did find time to ply everything I accomplished so far. It was far more than I realized. It took several hours to complete the 3 ply skein. I had another skein of 2 ply after that. Then I took the rest off the bobbin and moved it to a toilet paper roll to store it until I can spin some more brown - all the rest is natural white.

I wanted all my bobbins empty for this weekend. This weekend is #3 of 3 fiber fairs the three of us planned for this year. It is the Fiber Expo (http://www.fiberexpo.com/) in Ann Arbor. We all signed up for classes. I have 2 on Saturday and an all day class on Sunday. No time to spend money again! Probably a good thing.

LC Guy bought two more black sheep last week. He sheared one on Saturday and reported the fleece is clean, long and curly...and mine! He said he took his time and kept the fleece together. I can't wait to see it. There is still one to shear and I offered to help if he could do it on Monday. Yeah, I finally got smart and took the day after the festival off. I am figuring I will not be home Sunday until 9:30. Too late to get Sadie, so I will need to go pick her up on Monday also.

Sadie...I don't know what to do with her. My fault entirely. I taught her "find it" and encouraged her to look high and low in order to find it and claim the prize. It is a constant battle to keep the cat food out of her reach. If I leave it out, she knocks it off the raised platform and eats it off the floor. So I put it in the closet and closed the door. The cat opens the door and I find my clothes on the floor in the closet when I get home.

I have been putting it on the open top shelf of the bookcase between the kitchen and living room. About 1 foot from the ceiling. I came home the other day and noticed a candle on the floor in the kitchen...I walk around the corner and papers and books are scattered all over the floor. In the middle of them is the cat food dish...yep, empty. I still can not figure out how she did it. But there are paw prints on my kitchen counter next to the fridge. Damn dog is too smart for her britches.

It was a beautiful weekend and after work on Saturday, I got my hair cut and ran errands. Went shopping, took in my recycling, and stopped at the lake. Took some photos, talked to the neighbor and went home and cleaned the yard. Put the hammock away for the winter and the deck chairs. Good bye sweet summer! :(

Sunday, I put it off as long as I could, but I had to go in the crawl space and close the vents. But I reorganized all my knitting patterns and the stash. I pulled out the sewing machine and set it up in the dining room too. Finally, I couldn't put it off anymore and changed into my crawl clothes. It was worse than I imagined. The second layer of insulation had swelled and fallen down in several places. I headed back up to get a staple gun and returned to stuff the vents and start on the insulation. It took me a couple tries until I developed a system...and got over the fact that I was literally rolling in things that smelled and itched. And laying on my back while fiberglass insulation and dirt from my gloves, fell in my eyes, nose and mouth. Ah, the glamorous part of single woman's life of home ownership!

I was almost done when disaster struck. I was tired, dirty, and didn't want to be there in the first place. I had repositioned this one piece three times and it kept slipping. It was made more awkward because I was working around several wires. I became impatient and frustrated with it and angrily muscled it into place and quickly stapled it. Sparks flew and a puff of smoke appeared. I thought I heard the furnace stop running abruptly. I used some words that my mother never taught me and prepared for the worst. Hm, what's the worst? I scrambled as fast as I could for the exit. Thinking, its Sunday and late afternoon. It will cost an arm and 2 legs to have a electrician come out if my furnace is out because of my little DIY project. I ran around flipping switches and cranked up the furnace. Everything was working. *whew*

Okay, now what? This fiercely independent, grown up woman called mommy and daddy for answers. Following Mom's advice, I crawled back down in the hole with electrical tape to cover the vampire-like holes in the wire left by my heavy duty stapler. I double wrapped it and got the hell out of there.

I was a dirty mess and feeling much better mentally so I hit the shower. I didn't do anything drastic for the rest of the evening...not even cook! I called the corner store and ordered a pizza, cleaned up my mess, finished hanging my freshly cleaned, but still wet mini blinds and went to pick up my pizza.

I knew I had physically over done it this weekend, but stuff needs to get done. I was stiff and sore on Monday...and Tuesday, but no flare.

But with my 11 hour day and all this typing my fingers and hands are really sore. I need to stop. It is time for bed and I didn't get any spinning done and only a couple rows of knitting during lunch. I am relieved of all my angst and torment for not blogging in such a long time. I hope to do some short entries with the itouch this weekend. I am going to try to blog via Flickr. If not, I will catch you up next week...I promise! Dang, I still have to add photos!

Busy Week

I gave up trying to knit and spin this week. I am trying to use every extra moment this week to prepare for my 8th graders. It may be stressing me into a flare or two. I was flaring on Tuesday and today.

Yesterday, I managed to squeeze in a short walk between rain showers. Sadie really needed to run. It has been non-stop nasty for over a week.

With the flare problems this week, I am concerned about going to the outing - but I think I mentioned that in my last post. It is still under consideration.

Because I start teaching on Fridays now, I have to figure out how to fit in my other four hours for COOR. This means - either I work after hours during the week or weekend, or work from home - same times. It would be easiest to work on location. My boss suggested I go home for dinner after the college - eat, relax a bit and then go in. This appeals to me because I can also take Sadie.

Well this is short, I'm sore from typing all day. I haven't even touched my knitting today.

I am looking forward to finishing up tomorrow early, stopping at my parents - I wonder if they remember me? If I feel good, I will put in some hours at work - then I can relax ALL weekend and do whatever I want, and am able, to do. Come on Friday!

In Sadie's photo, she is sporting a very quick, very simple, hunter's orange collar. It makes it easier for me to see her. I walk her only on private land now, but still don't want to take the chance in case of a trespasser.

Now, I am going to do a quick post to FB and then I'm off to bed!

Spinning when I should be knitting

I took my apple crisp to knit night and we devoured it. Everyone is considering or already into Christmas knit mode. I should be.

Instead, I spent the whole weekend spinning and baking. The weather was rainy and cold, so I indulged myself. No regrets. No guilt.

But it IS getting colder and rain in the forecast for the next 7-10 days....and wintery mix was mentioned. ugh

This weekend is the DSA Fall Outing and I flared today - so I am reconsidering attending. It would be fun, but we would be inside, on cold cement floors, on metal chairs...a recipe for pain. We'll see. I haven't made up my mind yet.

This Friday begins my 8th grade web page program that will run until March. I am really looking forward to it, but not quite ready yet.

I took this photo Monday morning on the way to work. At the end of my drive. :) The moon looked bigger than in the photo. Isn't that the way it always works?

The wind has picked up outside. Something is tinging against the window...hopefully its pine needles or leaves and not sleet.

Did I ever tell you what the shining blue eyed animal in the floodlight of back yard was? I figured it out. I will go back and look to see - can't go humiliating myself again, if I don't have to...

I'm off to bed. Meds made me sleepy.

Not so energetic today, not sure why either. There are a couple small things - serving of fries (simple carbs/junkfood) and took my meds really late. I did better today, so I will gauge my energy tomorrow.

Anyway, about 4pm I felt like I had been hit by a truck.

I was hard to get out of bed this morning. It was about 26 degrees. It was a pretty ride to work though. I almost stopped a few times to take photos, but I was running late, so I only stopped once. This photo was taken out in the farmlands on County Road 602 (or 601, I get them confused).