8.31 Bad Cat!

Who, me?

8.29 Grey stuff

Two years in a row I bought the same sheep's fleece from Whitefish Bay. It was a spotted grey and white. Last year I shipped both fleeces off to a small processor and got a nice note back that my fleeces were in the queue and I'd hear something back in about 15 months. 13.5 months later, here they are.

Well worth the wait.

So now I have 11 pounds of perfectly wonderful Corriedale roving, suitable for short or long draw, that's going to make a lovely tweedy yarn. One of the nicest preparations I've tried spinning.

They also returned this to me:

I've never had anyone return the discarded fiber to me. I'm not sure what to do with other than use it for mulch. Ideas?

8.26 What I did on my summer vacation

One of the nice things about living on the east coast for the past few years, is that we've been able to visit Lac Brompton every summer. Sur l'eau is still there, although S is quite a bit bigger than he was when we moved back east. (Upstairs is the living quarters, downstairs is the boat house/shower house; the whole thing straddles a stream, which is completely verboten nowadays, but Sur l'eau is grandfathered in.)

The lake is getting built up quite a bit, but we're at the quiet end and it's still quiet except on the weekends.

The stump is a remnant of days gone by when the whole area belong to the logging company - it sits in the bay at the end of the channel for the stream and collects up gravel. The gravel forms "Duck Island",

which varies in size from 1-duck to 8-duck, depending on how recently it has rained a great deal. When we arrived it was an 8-duck island, but after raining a bit on each of 3 days, it was down to just 1-duck capacity.

Mostly we had mallards (as usual, up to 21 at a time), but there was also a family of mergansers that came by each morning to fish in the bay.

The last morning, there was also a mink. I almost got its picture as it was checking out the shore and the boats, but just as I went to focus, it suddenly made a splashing dash for Duck Island, much to the annoyance of the mergansers.

After poking about on the stump, it took off swimming across the bay and we didn't see it again.

8.15 Maggie again

I'm reasonably pleased with how the Maggie BFL is coming out. I'm not entirely happy with my long draw yet, but it is approaching consistency, even if only asymptotically.

8.13 Spindling silk and angora

When we first moved to Rochester (6 years ago), I acquired some blue tussah silk in Denim Blue. 3 oz - such a huge amount! (not)

When I started spinning it on the Lollipop, I plied it two ply silk - one ply angora. When I ran out of angora, I didn't lose interest particularly, just immediacy. Other things came and went, and I kept working on the silk rather desultorily.



When I ran across it again (that stash rearrangement!) I decided I wanted to finish it during the TdF. I didn't make the deadline, but I did finish it on our trip to the B&B.

I spun for a while one evening while the resident cat snuggled on the sofa near me. Not a cat used to spindles, every time the spindle spun she alerted on it and watched like a hawk. As soon as I took the spindle back in my hand, she relaxed again.

The next morning I spun again while waiting for breakfast and between then and the time we quit gabbing with the innkeepers, I managed to get it all finished up!

8.11 Progress report

Dayflower Daydream is moving slowly (almost 500 stitches per round now), but it is still cranking along. I think I'll have enough yarn for another shawl after this...

8.7 Summer fun

While both teenagers were away, J and I ran away for a couple of nights at a B&B. (Bristol Views Bed and Breakfast in Naples, NY. Converted old farmhouse, lovely views, great place to stay.) We went hiking along the Finger Lakes Trail early in the morning before it got too hot, and then we went down to Grimes Glen.

I got Grimy Gulch stuck in my head and never can remember the name of the place, but fortunately for me, I took a picture.

We had been told that the bridge was out at the beginning of the trail (true) but that it was not too hard to ford the creek (mostly true) and the waterfalls were great to see (completely true.)

In fact, the valley is all shale, mostly crumbling away and the trail sort-of goes up each side of the creek.

We observed that we had come ill-prepared for the hike - the locals all wore water shoes and followed the trail on one side until it crumbled away, then sloshed across the creek to the other side for a while.

When I slipped and got one foot soggy on the way back down the creek, I gave up and followed local custom. I had sandals in the car and the sun was hot enough my shoes were dry by the next morning.

8.6 Summertime...

and the livin' is crazy. Weirdness abounds.

Among other things, S has returned from 10 days with 36000 other scouts. He's tanned, tired, taller (?), and not enthused about turning around and heading out the door again three days later. Not that he doesn't want to go, but that he doesn't want to get ready to go. Oh, well, since he wants to go, he's just going to have to suck it up.

I had a small chat with his scoutmaster and heard things that can only make a mother's heart glow - helpful, polite, friendly, volunteered for potentially sucky stuff that didn't actually come to pass but doesn't negate the fact that he did volunteer...

K is to return tomorrow - can't wait to see her.

I've gotten a bunch of spinning done, pictures to follow.

I've gotten a bunch of knitting done, pictures ditto.

A long time ago, I was working on an afghan for S. A Taste of Aran Afghan. 20 blocks. I had a bunch of blocks finished when I misplaced the pattern (boo!). About a year later, I found the pattern again (yay!) caught up with a bunch of magazines. By that time I had misplaced the bag with the project in it (boo!). When I did my massive re-arrangement of the spare bedroom (repository of the Stash), I actually found myself with my hands on both of these items (yay!). It turned out I had 14 of the blocks done and one in progress. I now have 16 of the blocks done and one in progress. I might actually finish all the blocks before I lose the project again!