Ah it is a tiring life,

being the rodent and insect controller for a whole household! Though if a rat appeared, I am not sure what Trouble would do. When faced with a squirrel up close and personal, he looked... astonished!

The day began very foggy, and threatened rain all day but except for a little spattering on my drive home, never developed. Tonight though, it should rain good and hard. Since we need it, I can't complain, and since it is coming at night, even better. Spring is in sight, and there's warm days acoming. Too warm, before too long, I imagine.

I got lots of spinning done this weekend, though I won't say much for the quality. I wasn't necessarily trying for even thread, but I would like it to hold together. Some of the stretches are pretty thin, but most of that should be evened out by Navaho plying ...plying onto itself through a loop. This plying style yields a three ply yarn, a wonderful yarn for socks since the 3 plys make the yarn symetrically smoother than 2 plys. I am not too unhappy with it, since it has been years since I spun cotton, and I only ever spun cotton a tiny bit anyway. Can't get better without practice.

I have been reading my BIL's new novel, about paleogenetics, sort of. Well, it is an action story, with a little love story and some (easy to swallow) science, and a little mystery too. A rollicking good read!

I have also been sewing this weekend, and will post a pic when I am done. I have a couple of garments on line, and a stuffie too. I went thrifting, and got a wool blanket in a pretty shade of rose for $4! Nicely felted too! There just aren't enough hours in the day, or enough days in the weekend to do everything!

Too Much Time on Blogging!

It seems like I have spent too much time on the blogging highway, and not enough time either creating or organizing. I have gotten a bit fyrther on the cross-stitch knit scarf, and had a wonderful time with my husband visiting Woodlawn Plantation Needlework Exhibition, and organized my studio spaces so I could fit my little loom in to weave on it, and finally, spun recycled denim.... ugh, love the color, but it is really HARD to spin. I want to work on making the yarns I want to make rather than the ones the fibers seem to want to make. Sounds funny, but it is true, fibers seem to spin easily into some forms, and be sticky and lumpy when forced into others. I will conquer this issue, but I think not easily!

A Cup of Tea and a Sit-down...

That's just what I need! There is construction going on right outside the shop, they start early, before we open, and knock off by 330pm most days. They run motors, generators and big construction vehicles the whole time...my word it is noisy. I didn't really realize how much it bothered me until the noise stopped. My neck and shoulders must have been tensed, because I had to un-hunch everything. So I had a cuppa and a sitdown. Whew.

The scarf is a really cool crossstitch-like pattern. Usually I can just cruise along on autoknit, but this is like lace. If I mess up, I have to rip all the way back, because I haven't figured out how to repair a problem, or even rip back a little and recover. I had to rip out at row 4. And row 7. And row 14. And one where I was so far along I didn't count. Sigh. But it really looks cool, so I am forging along pretty well for the present. Crossing my fingers. And toes! The warmer colored photo is closer to the true color. Well, here's to another row!

A Purse's beginning and a totally busted cat!

Not to mention a really yummy steak dinner! As to busted and cats, Trouble loves to chew on dead, dried up plants... but always looks so innocent when he is caught. This time, I caught him with his face buried in the lavender!

I am looking for a good lining for the purse... you would think in a huge fabric stash like mine, there would be the perfect fabric... and there probably is. I just have to find it! The m

essy shelves are symptomatic of the problem...

Weekends Are Wonderful...

Don't you think? I look forward to it all week, but never get all the things done that I want to do. I am learning that it is okay to sometimes do something just for fun, and sometimes nothing at all. I watched tv and knitted for a significan part of my weekend. I also am making a purse for a blogging friend... I like the design, and am just trying to avoid my wrist locking up on me. If I vary what I do, not doing hour after hour of the same thing, I can usually avoid more than just normal tiredness. I do tend to knit for longer than I should, but oh well. Can't be disciplined all the time! I knitted a little cozy for my coffee cup, and sewed two more. I am knitting on a scarf using a new stitch, looks like a cross stitch. I will take pics when there is more to see than a few rows. I also made some knitting stitch markers, with little beads... hope they work. I sat outside for a while, it was a warm day, not too sunny in the afternoon, but still pleasant. We opened all the windows and kept them open until our neighbour started smoking cigars outside under our bedroom. Ugh.

The kitties were in 7th heaven outside. The squirrels sat outside the yard and chuffed at us! I sat and spun up a couple nice ounces of shetland moorit fleece. I usually spin pretty fine, but want to spin a more woolen and thicker yarn when I do my icelandic fleece, so thought I would see how it went... boy it is harder to spin thicker and fluffier now than thinner and semiworsted. I had to chant slow slow feet, fast fast hands! I will let it sit tomorrow and reel it off and ply it Monday.