Friday Fluff

 

The wheel spun cotton experiment is over. Can it be done? Yes. Should it be done? No. It's not a pleasant experience. It's very fiddly and all you get is some mighty fuggly yarn. 

Those singles and that two ply cotton that I spindle spun a few years ago is so much nicer-so it's back to the spindle. 

Since my now empty Ladybug deserved something better I dug this beauty out of the stash. It's Merino/Silk.

Since I don't live in the 18th century spinning should be fun-not a chore. This oughta do it. 

April Showers

 

We've been taking advantage of the 80 plus temps and have been power washing the filthy house and deck. 

The place looks like a haunted house every fall. It's practically covered in spider webs that make a terrible mess. It was not easy getting off all the goo after this mild winter. They were apparently working overtime. The Mister is done his bit but I'm still working on the deck. Happily, today's predicted thunderstorms have given me a day off-thank goodness. After The Mister dropped the ladder on my head yesterday I could use a day off. I was thankful and a even a bit surprised when I woke up this morning since I got quite a good whack. All that drama proved that we are TOO DARN OLD to be climbing ladders. Next year we'll hire someone to do the job. 

In spite of being tired at the end of the day, knitting has been happening. Musselburgh gets picked up every night but it's still not up to the 18 1/2 inches I need in order to start decreasing.

Riddari is also growing-slowly.  I can't wait to get to the fun part. It's still great TV knitting but who needs a lap full of wool when it's 83 degrees outside? This may have to go in time out until fall. 

Poor BonAmie and Chestnut are stacked up on a chair by my stitching table. I'm lucky if I get one round a day on one or the other. None of this really matters because soon I'll have plenty of time to catch up because....

......The Mister got his surgical instructions yesterday and the big day is April 26...at 6:15. In the morning. Good golly that's early. He's got several appointments for pre-op tests in the next two weeks and we've been warned that if one of us even gets a cold everything is off and we go to the back of the line. A line that has a 6 month wait. We're not taking any chances so starting today we're back in lockdown. We did a Walmart pickup and a grocery pickup and have piled our old pandemic supply corner up with everything we need to get us to that date. I want it all over with as much as The Mister does. We've only been waiting four months already. 

Walkabout Wednesday

 

They bay was roaring on Monday. It was as angry as I've seen it in a long while. You couldn't walk on parts of the boardwalk without getting a shower. I loved it. 

Right down the road a bit you can visit Herring Bay which apparently wasn't being affected by the same winds. It was almost dead calm. You can put a canoe in here for free. We should get one. 

The Mister is having a birthday this month and I bought him some new binoculars. In spite of the wind it was a good clear day for trying them out. We've always wondered what was on the other side. Big houses. Very big houses. We could also see the Bay Bridge which reminded us that every year we say we are going to Ocean City for a day or two off season so we can take Pup. We never do. Maybe this fall. Maybe not. 

TIny Needle Tuesday

 

It took me two tries but I finally conquered that big blue motif on the top right. The mistake I made was to work both sides and hope it would meet in the middle. It didn't. 

Patchwork Printemps had a potted bird house added to it. 

And....the cow pile now has the top cow in place. I guess that's actually a calf. 

But.....what my tiny needle really should have been doing this week is stitching down all this binding on the spring placemats. As much as I love them, I've really run out of steam with these.

A Happy Accident

 

I cut my finger AGAIN. It wasn't a bad cut but who needs finger cuts. I was carding fiber when I got too carried away and nicked myself. After disinfecting and bandaging I asked The Mister for some of his work gloves to prevent any more blood being drawn. 

What I discovered was that the rubber palms not only protected my fingers, they really helped handle the wool much better than my bare hands could. I could tease it out so much better since I could really get a grip on it. I'm keeping these in my carding kit. 

After sitting around Saturday waiting for the storm that wasn't I couldn't sit still yesterday so I had drug all the carding stuff onto the deck to get another batt made for this year's TdF. It's more of the California Red.

I didn't spend much time out there but I did get one more done. 

That makes five. I hope to get at least two more done before it gets too hot and buggy to go outside. 

It was so nice outside I took one of wheels outside and finished spinning the last of the raggedy rolags I had made from the same fiber I was carding. 

These are some raggedy singles that I made from those raggedy rolags. I was going to ply it together with those pretty batts from the carder but I'm going to have to rethink that. I probably should just ply this little bit with itself and knit it into a swatch to see how it blocks before I get too involved with the rest of it.

Much Ado About Almost Nothing

 

 We had two days of high wind alert warnings so we spent the whole day yesterday in the lower level looking out the window, watching all the Lord of the Rings movies back to back and ordering pizza. In spite of a 11 am to 1 am alert the wind didn't show up until after 10 pm. 

Yes, that's Papa John's pizza. It's not great. The only reason I order it is to get the brownies. They are stupendous. 

After Frodo sailed off to the Undying Land with the Elves, I gave up on the storm watch for a while and went upstairs to work in the sewing room. I got the two small hot pads quilted.  I saved the placemats for a day when I have my wits about me. That sure wasn't yesterday. Laying around all day really messes up your mojo.

I did have it together enough to get some lattices sewn on Dear Jane. I haven't picked her up in ages and it was making me feel bad. 

I know you can't do all the stuff all the time but I did get my third grader's quilt finished last week.What a difference all that machine quilting made. It's even been through the wash for the first time in its long life. It's a bit raggedy but it only makes it look well loved-which it most certainly is. 

An April Fool

 

It seems that things are working out on Betty Loom so it's time to think about winding something new on the warping board so it will ready when this one is finished. 

After digging through the stash I found these older weaving kits so I thought it would be a good idea to use them up. I used to belong to a kit of the month club through Cotton Clouds.

These particular kits don't come with the patterns (drafts). You have to buy them separately through what used to be Interweave Press but is now Long Thread Media. To my dismay I discovered that you have to have a subscription to access most of their library now. I bought the $30 yearly digital subscription before realizing that there are actually three tiers of subscriptions and to access what I needed I would have to upgrade to the most expensive-$199 a year. That's not happening. I guess what I am going to have to do is cannibalize the kits and use the patterns for what they do give me access to. 

Lesson learned: Look before you leap.