9.28 I just have a few to go...

visited 45 states (90%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

9.25 The 3 dwarfs are here...

Grumpy, Sneezy, Sleepy...

It's been oddly busy and dull here. I'm annoyed at various people and institutions. I've dumped flickr/yahoo since they can't figure out how to accept payment from me and keep telling me that I need to change something (unspecified) about how I am paying them. The final straw was the follow-up email they sent me Question: How was our customer service? Answer: Piss poor. Response: Dead silence. I'm giving photobucket a try for a year, but am disinclined to want to learn a new interface, so it's a struggle make myself get started.

Bloglines is finally going tits-up so I'm transferring my blogroll to google reader. All sorts of op-ed pieces will tell me that RSS feed aggregators are so old school, but frankly, I like having my blog feeds all in one place. It's annoying to move them one at a time, but I'm fixing up the dead-ends as I go and dumping the ones that haven't updated in three years (waving sadly goodbye to some people). I am adding a few new ones, so the list is likely to be longer than it was.

I wish the weather would just settle into fall - ramping up into summertime heat (93 yesterday) and then dumping into fall (62 projected today) is playing havoc with my sleep cycle.

I've been harvesting potatoes and carrots and tomatoes and eggplant. The eggplant has taken the recent string of chilly weather unhappily and may not continue with the dozen or so inch long eggs. The tomatoes I planted this year were Black Cherry tomatoes. They are a nice little cherry tomato to eat out of hand, but not acidic enough for my primary use for tomatoes, which is with cottage cheese. I think I'll switch back to the Sungolds next year.

We had a nice, if chilly, time at the Fingerlakes Fiber Fest. We ran into some people serendipitously but the weather wasn't really encouraging for lounging. The alpacas and the angora bunnies and the shetland sheep were wonderful as usual. The Artichoke French guy was there, but the line was always a dozen people deep, so we tried the lamb sausage people instead. Very tasty. I did buy a few things, but it's all very dull picture fodder - packets of dye stuffs and a couple of packages of beans from the bean soup ladies. We were mostly looking for things for a friend of mine and I did my best to enable her. She tried a bunch of spindles but decided she likes the Tracy Eichheim she's borrowed from me best. She did get some lovely CVM/silk to work on spinning next.

9.7 Ten on Tuesday

Ten things to do before the end of summer...

1. School supply shopping.

2. Changing of the guard in the garden - out with the parsley and the lettuce; in with the broccoli and maybe some cabbages.

3. See about harvesting the potatoes. It's my first year with potato grow bags and I'm curious to see how it turned out.

4. Put the boat in storage. This means a trip to the Hudson Valley where J's brother puts it in his shed for us.

5. Harvest the Northern Spy apples and get them put in the freezer.

6. Revamp the garage once the boat is out of it. I think we can toss the umpteen shoes and boots that K&S have outgrown, dispose of the oddments of fish tank stuff we haven't used in three years and re-arrange the garden tools.

7. A walk or two along the shore of the lake (Ontario), before the cold winds of fall make that undesirable. It's amazing how cool the lake breezes can be even when it's really hot.

8. Finish up the hats for fall soccer viewing. My standard go-to hat for winter weather is a spiffy red-and-white, to go along with my red coat. S's school colors are blue-and-gold. I got shunted into the red-and-white-school-colors seating section last year, apparently based on the hat I was wearing. People looked at me funny when I cheered the keeper making a save against the red-and-white team. This was not a problem at all games, naturally, but I decided I needed a blue-and-gold hat, regardless of my coat color.

9. Finish up the shawl on the needles. I'm tired of looking at it.

10. Finish up the cross stitch on the q-snaps. Ditto. Although this has been hanging about much longer than the shawl has.

9.4 Random babble

I'm so glad it's moving into September. The temperature outside is 67F and we have the windows open and I'm actually wearing long pants vs. shorts for the first time in, oh, what feels like six months. Probably really only 3, but when one is hot, time drags.

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K is at a car wash fundraiser. She went to it dressed as though today were yesterday (you know, when it was still 89F). I took pity on her and went back after a while with a jacket and sweatpants.

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J is working on the car (the power steering suddenly has no power steering fluid). He has just come back from the store (for the umptieth time getting tools and parts and...). He found himself in the plumbing aisle at the hardware store, chatting with a fellow getting plumbing parts. I'll spare you the recitation of their conversation, except to say that at some point the guy's eyes glazed over and after a blank moment, he said "you must be an engineer".

I fell apart laughing.

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It's September so it's only two weeks to Fingerlakes Fiber Fest. I don't need any fiber, I don't particularly need any tools... Tell me why I'm going again?

oh, right. Never mind ;-)

I'll be there on Sunday because I have to work the gate for a couple of hours. I'm still debating whether I want to go on Saturday too. I suppose I ought to look at the schedule.

9.2 Serendipity

I went to dyeing at the Genesee Country Village a few weeks ago. It's the first time I've gotten there this summer and I suddenly realized I didn't have much to take to dye. I'd like to dye the other end of the Zephyr cone, but I can't until I've finished the Dayflower. I've dyed up all my other whites/naturals in yarn already, and short of going out to buy more or getting cracking on spinning some naturals, all I had left to dye was fiber. So... top it was.

I chained a length of it, and when I got there, realized I had forgotten any cheesecloth. Since we're dyeing in open kettles and the fibers get knocked around a bit, it's a good idea to wrap up any fiber in a cheesecloth sack to help reduce felting and/or drifting apart. I borrowed a bit of cheesecloth that had seen previous duty. The white top went into a tin mordant bath in the yellow cheesecloth, and when it came out, the color on the cheesecloth had transferred to the top directly touching it. Having taken a good look at what I then had, I decided against putting the top into the tansy bath waiting for it and put it directly into the indigo bath.

It isn't what I started out to do (tin/tansy/indigo) but I like the result.

The grey will have to wait its turn.

8.31 Ten on Tuesday

Ten ways to lighten my mood:

1. Go to the African Violet or Orchid Show.

2. Read a frivolous book.

3. Snorgle a baby.

4. Put a lively jig on the CD and dance while doing the dishes. Best done when my kids are not at home as their jeering snickering annoys me again.

5. An audiobook on the MP3 and my spinning wheel with something long draw. Or short draw as long as it isn't too slippery or matted or VM-y or...

6. Soak in the jacuzzi. Possibly with company of the right sort. Kids and cats are out.

7. A nap in front of the fan. Or the fire, depending on the season.

8. Sit and knit.

9. Laugh with my kids. Or a friend. Even long distance is good.

10. Watch a funny movie. Or dig out the Looney Tunes.

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!

7.24 Progress Report

Dayflower Daydream is coming along. Slowly. Tinking three rows of over 400 stitches each didn't improve either my mood or my progress. Realizing that it's more than 400 stitches and only going to get worse with the next repeat makes me a little giddy. No wonder it took so long.

Actually, realizing that it's more than 400 stitches already makes me want to go double check that I need another repeat. I would be really pissed if I did another 40 rows and didn't need to.

ETA - Sadly a lifeline wouldn't have helped because on each row I was tinking, I kept thinking that the problem was just with the row previous and if I could just back up that far I'd be fine. I don't think I would have ripped to a lifeline unless it had been just right there. My problem was that three-rows-ago I did the double decrease in the first section and then didn't do it in the next 7 sections. So my numbers worked out in the first section, but not in any following sections...

I've now checked, and ::le sigh:: it does specifically say each section will have 72 stitches when I'm done and there are 8 sections altogether, ergo 576 stitches total. Another repeat it is.

7.22 Odd Thursday

J is down at Geneseo helping to setup for the NYPower rocket launch this weekend (the weather is looking icky for that but hope springs eternal).

S is upstairs avoiding gathering up stuff for packing for his trip to VA on Sunday.

In theory I'm sewing patches on uniforms, but I notice a little avoidance going on here as well.

This is BFL from High Bid Farm, in the Maggie colorway. Maggie is a perfectly beautiful brindled boxer. I got to meet her on Saturday when we met at the farm for spinning guild. Maggie had a great run (Bad Maggie!) when one of the Shetland rams got out - she chased him until she herself was finally caught. The ram was hot and bothered for quite a while after that. Maggie sat in the shade and visited with us after that, not repentant at all.

I have about 3/4 pound of this color, and another 1/4 pound of a darker shade. Depending on how much yardage I get, I'm thinking the body of the sweater in this shade and cuffs and ribbings in the darker shade.

7.20 Ten on Tuesday

10 things to take when camping

1. Sleeping pad. Preferably an air mattress. My bones are too old for sleeping on the ground.

2. Sleeping bag or other night covering, suitable to the weather. A sheet in the summer; a lightweight bag in the fall; our zip together winter bags when there's snow on the ground.

3. Pillow. Gotta have a pillow regardless of the weather.

4. Tent. Or possibly a trailer. Or even a camper. J likes to sleep under the stars, which is ok for one night, maybe two, but gets old quickly. A cot is good if there isn't a tent - I'll never forget the little crabby footieprints under the people's cots when we camped out at the beach. I want the crabs Under the Cot, not Walking Over Me.

5. Cookstove. Cooking over a fire is fun as a side amusement, but I want reliable heat for tea water in the morning.

6. Enough clothes.

7. Enough food.

8. A book to read.

9. Sturdy shoes to go for a walk.

10. Something with which to stifle any drunken neighbors. A bludgeon comes to mind, particularly when I recall the idiots who decided it was a good idea to kill a skunk (by stoning it) upwind of us. We went home early that time.

7.19 Okay...

K is in Nicaragua on a summer exchange for four weeks. I got a note from her recently which said, in part, "we went up to a lake in a volcano and went swimming... There was a place about 25 feet up where you could jump in, but I thought it was too high so I only did that three times."

7.13 Ten on Tuesday

10 things I like about where I live

1. College town. Not that I am enamoured of college students en masse, but where there are college towns, there are often side benefits. Cheap entertainment for one - lots of possibilities for music, theater and museums.

2. Guilds. Embroidery, weavers, crochet, knit, spinning, lacers...

3. Farmer's markets abound.

4. Lots of parks - by the Lake, by the river, in the hills.

5. Skiing within easy reach in the wintertime.

6. Yarn shops. Possibly too many to be self sustaining for the long haul, but having 5 real yarn shops within easy reach is really nice.

7. Six months of nice weather, three of ok weather and two or three of hot muck. The odds are good. Having real seasons is a major plus after living in CA for so long.

8. A real bicycle race in the summer time to go see.

9. Having a real rocket guild is a plus for J and when he's happy with his hobbies I can enjoy mine with a clear mind.

10. Having an expensive school system is expensive (and somewhat wasteful ::sniff::) but I will say we're getting our money's worth for the most part. Three more years to go and we'll be through with public school.

7.5 Spinning some Brownie

It looks rather like a poster child for bad craigslist photos of spinning wheels for sale, but for some reason, piling the fiber on top of the flyer keeps the cats from thinking it's a cat toy. Why? Dunno.

This is the next to the last bit of the Fudge Brownie I was complaining about but I finally mastered it. Unlike most of the top I've been spinning for a very long time, this roving has a right end and a wrong end for smooth drafting. Guess who started from the wrong end? On the whole, this was probably not a bad thing as I would have been completely flummoxed had I accidentally started from the right end and then gotten the wrong end the next time I bought some. That would have been worse.

With the right end, this is lovely lovely stuff to spin.

And who would have guessed? With the right prep and the right spinning technique (and the right end!) I too can be one of those people obnoxiously mentioning that this four ounces of spinning only took a couple of hours while I watched a World Cup game. You watch now - the next four ounces will take a week (or more) as I'm shifting to top, short draw, and sport weight.

And we won't at all go into the two ounces of silk that I have been working on for more than four years. Nope, we won't discuss that at all.

This is all that's left - do you suppose that I can finish it this summer?