Patience can pay off

   I tend not to be a very patient person.  I hate to stand in line, wait in traffic, be put on hold or to be told to call back tomorrow.  I especially hate when the Maytag guy can't come for two weeks or when I can only get one month of a prescription because  that is all my insurance allows ( maybe that's not patience, just frustration)  But in other areas I am almost infinitely patient.  I love to spin, have two wheels going at all times so I can vary what I am spinning and I usually have at least three knitting projects at a time.  Last week I mentioned four working projects and showed you the two that I finished.  Still no buttons for the basket weave scarf,  but it is blocked.  The endless socks aren't done, but I have decided they are my last pair of cotton socks on size 0 needles.  Too hard on my hands.  So I am working on the lovely Herbivore scarf, which is a joy to work on, even though it is getting to be about a zillion stitches in every row, and I need to finish that damn sweater for the Kid.  It is easy, really a snap to finish, and I like knitting on Alpaca Light.  It is the color that I don't like; Maroon.  I have never liked that color, even though this is a really lovely grey/maroon blend.  There is a lot of sweater  to hold on my lap, but if I just finish it I can start something else.  Maybe reward myself somehow?

   So what else is finished?  Lovely spinning.  The Wildflower honey BFL from the painted sheep is done and I have about 450 yards of lovely sport weight yarn.  I am not sure that it photographs very well, but it is a lustrous, creamy color, and exactly what I wanted.  I am now thinking that I will make gloves and another cowl to wear with my grown up lady coat. The spinning experience on my Louet S90 was 100% positive, but perhaps a bit less so for the plying.  I tried the first skein from the built in Kate, but that didn't work too well, so I used my Katie-a-go-go, or whatever it is called, and that worked better.  I am thinking about a Woolee Winder for the Louet.   Just thinking at this point.  I have 3.5 oz of the blue merino-silk  to finish spinning.  The first 8 oz have produced about 800 yards of lace-weight .  It is just gorgeous yarn.  I am not used to spinning quite this fine, but I love it.  This has been an absolute joy to spin, and I hope to spin some more  merino silk, maybe in a deep purple .
   And what about corgi cuteness?  Last week Eliot had his teeth cleaned, and  had to lay on the couch all day Saturday with his head on a pillow. He is as bad as the kids were when they had their braces adjusted.  At least he didn't make me go to the bowling alley to get him a milk shake. And Kitty cuteness, Soot has discovered a new bed that I bought for Riva.  I decided it is too small for her corgi rotundity so left it on the table til I could return it to the pet store.  Not happening, Soot is in love with this bed!

Less Stress

   NO disasters today.  I retrieved the lawn mower from the back 40 and tucked it behind the Kubota in the cellar of the barn.  It no longer actually mows.  I believe the belt  that drove the mower blade melted and became one with the metal housing.  Looks like someone needs a new lawn mower. Oh, dear.  Didn't do laundry, but chances are that someone will also need a new washing machine in the near future.  Though I was observant enough to have learned how to get the top and front off the washer, and perhaps remove the pump and shake out the quarters.  Maybe not.
   I took some pictures and uploaded them to Flickr.  That presented a major learning curve, though I have done it before, it was in the presence of a teenager, and now that he is in Ohio I am on my own.  Here we go:
Most recent knitting, a yellow lacy cowl, Poinsettia, by Anne Hanson, Knit in  a pale yellow silk/merino:

Basketweave scarf knitted in Manos Silk Blend, pattern from And the Beadz go on... in Wickford Rhode Island.  This is a short scarf that needs buttons.  It is not blocked yet.

   And some recent spinning,  BFL, the blue was  was dyed by Lynne Vogel, and spun in her class last August and I believe that I dyed the  pastel yarn in Lynne's class in the summer of  2008. Lots more spinning to show you another day.

I've been kind of a spinning fool lately, I have rediscovered my Woolee Winder on my Majacraft Rose and it has made my spinning a bit less tedious.  Also, some wheel changes are in the air.  Little Gem is on a vacation at the moment in New Hampshire and a lovely package is heading my way from Alaska.  More on that next week.  I am not sure I will blog again before I head off to Rhinebeck on Saturday.  I haven't been for about 6 years and I am looking forward to it.  I had planned to look at wheels, but that ain't happening, so I think I will check out more silk, and cashmere roving and see if I can find a 15 dent reed for my Harrisville Loom. Oh, and meet up with the Harrisville crew, of course.  See you there?

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so close to home

   Yesterday was not a good day.  It involves a repairman, a fire, a trip to the laundromat and many, many bad words on the part of my dearly beloved, who can fix almost anything that I break.  And it was a busy night.   He had to go back to work in the lab after work, and he was NOT A HAPPY HUSBAND.  Well, the repairman was not there to fix the washing machine, and I actually went to the laundromat before I broke the washing machine.  The Dish Network guy came to install a DVR, which also included climbing on the roof to put a new whatsit on the dish, and about 3 phone calls to make it all work. But it works, I assume.  Haven't tried it yet.  Then I had to go to the laundromat because I had a comforter, dog beds and bathroom rugs to wash.  It was a sunny, but cold day and I knew I could put them on the line to dry. But I forgot them and it snowed and rained all night.  They are still there, wet. None of that heavy, bulky stuff can go in my apartment size front loader, as it makes the machine agitate itself off the platform it is on and across the cellar floor.  It sounds like NASCAR in the cellar, and I don't imagine is very good for the machine.  Which broke anyway while washing a load of skivvies.  It sounded like a cup of nuts and bolts in a blender and was flashing codes at me, dinging and full of water and dirty unmentionables.  I called the M**T*G guy, who said he could maybe come in a couple of weeks, but I could bring it in and he could fix it quicker. Yea, okay, load her up sweetie we're taking a road trip.  So I said my husband is pretty handy and then he said  "takeoffthetop, thenthefronttheresacouplascrewsandthepumpisinthelowerright
takeitoutandbringitinoremptyitout,maybe." That made no sense, but I took notes and you-know-who found 3 quarters in the water pump.  Fixed. We put it back together and only had one extra screw.
   But the lawnmower is still parked down over the hill behind the apple trees.  I mowed the front lawn wearing a down jacket, hat and mittens.  In addition to 6" of grass there were several 200 year old maple trees worth of leaves on the ground, and I assumed that I could just mow them up into rows and save a step in raking them up.  Wrong, no, very wrong.  Even at about 31 degrees they got chewed up under the lawn mower deck and sort of spontaneously combusted. I was sitting on the lawn mower and it was a tad bit disconcerting to see all the smoke.  So I drove it far enough away from the house that it was not really visible, hopped off and left it.  Did I mentioned it rained all night?  We won't need it til spring and then I will be in way more trouble than I am for leaving quarters in my bras.
   On the knitting front I finished both my silk/cashmere cowl and the  basketweave scarf.  I spent the day doing safe things like paying the taxes, which may just be a tad late, and watching " The Proposal" which came out on video today.  As a former resident of Sitka, Alaska I have to make a statement here.  That film was not filmed in Sitka. I believe it was mostly filmed in Massachusetts.  The downtown was not even closely related to Sitka and Sitka's scenic woodsy trails do not pass through deciduous forests.  Although the movie was not totally horrible, it was very close.  And to any of my Alaskan friends reading this Happy Alaska Day!
  Tomorrow I promise pictures.  The cowl should be dry, the scarf blocking and the silk/merino plyed! Yay!!!