My first fleece

I bought a fleece from an acquaintance the other day. I'm in love. First of all, I *like* the smell of sheep. I can't place why, but it's a very comforting smell to me.

It's got a lot of crimp - about 13 bumps/inch. Soft enough that when I made an overtwisted cabled sample of yarn, it's still soft enough that it doesn't itch. It's almost as soft as the merino I've got here.

Of course, the first thing I started doing was picking out little locks and trying to wash them. Over the past week, I've made lots of progress in how to wash wool.

My most recent discovery is something that none of the HOWTO sites mention - the wool comes much cleaner if you comb it first. All the bits of vm and dried lanolin and gook crumble right out, leaving just a little bit of dust for the wash water. I've cut it down from two washes and two rinses in hot water to one of each in lukewarm water, and the wool is so much brighter and softer, too.

I also made my own comb. Haircombs work, but they're too fine. I used tiny finishing nails, and put them through a piece of scrap aluminum, then folded the aluminum in half to hold them still. I've been using cat slicker brushes too, but I've been combing through the locks a few times before using them. It gets more crud out, faster.

AND.... brushing/combing the wool allows me to save most of the lanolin. Why waste a ton of water and soap to get rid of something that costs me almost a dollar a gram? All I've been doing is scraping up the greeblies that fall out of the wool, and putting them in water. A quick stir, and the dirt and skin separate from the grease. The grease rises to the top. Once I've got a fair bit, I'll heat it to melt the grease and let it cool, then scrape it off and repeat to get it as clean as I can. When you've got my skin, and Saskatchewan winters, you appreciate lanolin for the joy that it is!

Anyway, I hope Trics forgives me for buying from somebody else first - the price was too good to be true!

I am Dishcloth Cotton

My fibre-chum who is lucky enough to have her own sheep http://bythehills.blogspot.com/ had this on her blog, so I swiped it.

What kind of yarn are you?

I am Dishcloth Cotton. You are a very hard worker, most at home when you're at home. You are thrifty and seemingly born to clean. You are considered to be a Plain Jane, but you are too practical to notice. Take this quiz! Quizilla

That BAD BAD man!

I'm sick again. This is so unfair. This time it's tummy troubles. I won't go into details. You're welcome.

Anyway, what can a generally lazy person do when they're sick home from work and have even less energy than usual? That's right, spin and surf.

So I'm sitting in my recliner, spinning and surfing, surfing and spinning, with my new very favourite spindle that I created from all kinds of tidbits of information I've gathered from the groups and various websites - oh, and a little girl on figure skates, but that's another story. I usually use it as a bottom whorl spindle, but it could be top whorl if I wanted to use it that way. The whorl itself is very thin and made from polymer clay, with a small thicker area around the outside to make it spin longer. Oh, and it's pepto-bismol pink. The shaft is about 9 inches long, and tapered to a point at both ends. No hook. When I'm using it as a drop spindle, I use a half-hitch or two or three to anchor the yarn, or I can rest it in a plate in my lap and spin from the tip. Not having to hook the relatively short lengths I spin while sitting saves a lot of time over the course of the afternoon. I learned that nifty trick from a lady on Spindlitis (a Yahoo group)

So anyway, here I sat, spinning and surfing, surfing and spinning, winding and surfing, spinning and winding... when the doorbell rings. Oh, bother. Fine, I stand up (mainly to appease the dog who won't shut the heck up) set my spindle on my chair and my laptop on the floor, and answer the door. Strange looking man says he's selling CAA. I lie and tell him I'm already a member and everything is fine and close the door. I don't feel like dealing with a sales pitch today.

I came back to the living room to see my beautiful spindle on the FLOOR in front of my chair, with the whorl shattered. :( My beautiful candy pink whorl that spins merino at the same speed as I can draft it is dead. I can't find my other whorl that's almost as good, either.

Grrr....

So what can I do? Make another whorl. I can't remember how I created that pink, but hopefully this one will be even better. Right? It will be, right? Right? I'm off to get my hands smelling like Sculpey now.

Flee, Fly, Flu

Well, beginning my 10th day of work (Monday), I got the flu. I missed a day. Then another. Then today I was still sick. I decided last night, between coughing and wishing I could remove the painful parts of my brain, that I would go to the doctor today anyway. Sweet man... he told me that my chest was congested. HE WENT TO SCHOOL FOR HOW MANY YEARS to figure that out? I quit high school, for crying out loud, even I can tell just by listening to the bubbling sounds when I breathe that my chest is freaking well congested - and I didn't need a stethoscope for it, either. Just give me penicillin and a note that I'm not playing hookey, please. His dear heart really is in the right place, and he's the second sweetest doctor in that clinic, but I KNOW I'm sick.

Then there's my supervisor. Lorianne, if you ever read this - you are a dear. She was so understanding when I called in, despite the fact that I will not be in to finish my training before she leaves for a sun-filled two weeks in Mexico. At least, I hope it's sunny for her. She's keeping me on emails until she gets back. At least I know my voice will be back to normal before she sets it loose on the customers. That's a good thing, because I sound like a dinosaur.

Now, on to things I've learned while sick.

1. The silk noile I have is cotton. I've been spinspinspinning away at it, daydreaming of the lace it said it wants to be (Who argues with talking silk? Not me!) and eventually my vision cleared enough to notice the crimp. I'm far from an expert, but it didn't look quite like I thought silk should look. My sense of touch followed the other 4 senses to wherever they go when I'm sick, so that didn't tell me anything. Today I burned a tiny puff of it. You see, silk is protein based, much like hair, meat, fingernails, etc. When burned, it singes like hair, and gives off a similar disgusting aroma. This was plant fiber. It smelled like a dried maple leaf when I burned it. She didn't overcharge me for it, so I won't gripe. The price was right on the bag.
2. Sometimes commercial rovings need to be re-roved. Is that a word? Whatever. I've been fighting with some pretty brown shetland roving, and brought my cotton experience into it. I grabbed a comb (hair comb - I don't have any "real" tools yet) and realigned the fibers on a couple of little chunks. The roving really had a look that said "I made felt but forgot to add soap and water" than it said "spin me". Anyway, the little bit of extra time has paid for itself over and over. It spins up much faster-and much more easily-than I had even hoped for. YAY comb!
3. Energy can be changed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. It can be converted from finger flicks to a twist in fibers, and when stored in those fibers, creates a substance called yarn.
4. Energy spontaneously disperses from being localized to becoming spread out if it is not hindered from doing so. Should the yarn from #3, while still under tension and awaiting to have the movement of energy hindered by a process called plying(which would create a condition called inertia), escape from its confines, the resulting outburst of energy will create havoc and devastation previously unexperienced. And then entropy sets in. Entropy is a measure of disorder. Meters and meters of single ply yarn will become one compact tangled mess. LOTS of Entropy.
5. My daughter is a genius. Stop reading if you're squeamish. I'm warning you.
   Ok, you asked for it... She brought her poor, dear, ill mother a glass of water. She mentioned that she knows sick people need lots of water. Either they're dehydrated, or they're supposed to pee a lot. So I confirmed that it's easy to get dehydrated when you're sick. Just look at how much water I've lost by blowing my nose this week. She got more grossed out than I expected, and pointed out that when when I blow my nose, the water in the snot evaporates from the tissue and goes into the air. Thus, she has been inhaling my snot all week! Oh, my... she IS her mother's daughter.
   

You mean, I'm not that unique?!?

I've always been the Only One Like Me in my social splat. It's not a circle, circles are round. If you put your arms out and spin around, your hands make a circle. They're even. My social life has a group here and there, but no overlap and nothing filling in the gaps between. That's a splat.

Where was I... Oh yeah. Nobody has ever been Like Me. And I loved it that way. People don't always like me, but nobody has ever accused me of being The Same. My sisters Denise and Monica always tell me to write all the funny stuff I say down. I don't have time for that. I'm too busy talking and doing stuff that nobody else I know does, like recycle and play with raties and teach my dog to play dead when somebody proposes to her. (You've really gotta see that!)

Then I discovered Spinning a couple of months ago. I read a couple of how to do it websites, built a spindle, bought some Silk Hankies, and away I went. Then when the novelty started wearing off just a tiny bit, I started wanting to learn more. So I joined a couple of Yahoo groups and started reading other spinners' blogs. And it started dawning on me... all these posts and blogs looked like I wrote them! Ok, not ALL of them, but more than 3/4 of them. People who will make up a name for an object that they don't already know the name of. Names that describe the object and it's purpose in this world - like "Coffee Putter Inner Thingy". I didn't say that, but I would have in the same situation as the person whose blog I read it in.

I have found My People! People from all walks of life who thinks and talk like me. People who understand me, who I, in turn, don't have to figure out. In a way, I must admit that I'm a little Put Out that I'm not The Only One, but I just won't tell the people in my Social Splat that there are More Like Me.

Look! It's Bundleupagus...

Wind Speed: SE 31 MPH

Today...Cloudy. Becoming sunny with cloudy periods this morning. Increasing cloudiness late this afternoon. Local blowing snow this morning. Wind southeast 50 km/h becoming west 40 gusting to 60 near noon. High minus 2 with temperature falling to minus 7 this afternoon.

In other words, put on your grippy boots, cuz the wind is gonna knock you off your feet. It's been beating up on my house all night. The plastic over the window in the computer room isn't sealed properly, so it keeps making farting noises. Right now the wind chill is -19. And it's supposed to get worse.

Yes, Saskatchewanites are among the toughest people on the planet... but we don't have to *LIKE* it. All these people I know are going on wonderful vacations to places like the Dominican Republic and the Mayan Riviera and Greece, and Rick's parents are toasty warm in Mazatlan.
I'm sitting in a recliner in a huge sweater, enjoying the heat of a laptop.

I didn't get a lick of spinning done last night. I went for coffee instead, and played with my friend Pauline's 1 year old girl. Smart kid - she's already mimicking things adults do. She seemed to immensely enjoy wiping the table down with a paper napkin, and had a blast stacking the creamer cups. And she's warm, too. ;)

my new job

I figured I might as well post about this, since all my adoring fans are probably dying to know. First of all, FREE COFFEE!! The medical/dental benefits are ok, but there aren't a lot of companies anymore that are kind enough to keep a couple hundred geeks hopped up on caffeine.

Anyway, I'm 'in training' for about the first 6 weeks. The first 2-3 of that are all reading. My eyes have a permanent pink tinge to them--thank goodness they've given me an LCD monitor or I'd be blind by now. I've also got my own cubicle (well, half-cube... only 3 half-height walls) and my very own telephone number that can be called directly! :)

Unfortunately, this work thing is cutting into my spinning time. Right now I'm working on 100 grams of Tussah silk sliver, and spinning it really fine. I seem to naturally lean to the skinny side, so I'm just going to keep it that way. No pics yet though. The time it takes to dig out the camera and get it set up would cut into my spinning. LOL

brrr

It's freezing in my house this morning. I HATE winter.

Get this... and remember that all temperatures are in *celcius*. Yes, it does forecast a 32 degree drop in 24 hours... :(

WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT
Today...A few clouds. Becoming cloudy this morning. High minus 7.

Tonight...Cloudy. Periods of snow beginning this evening. Risk of freezing rain. Wind south 30 km/h. Temperature rising to plus 2 by morning.

Wednesday...Cloudy. 30 percent chance of flurries in the morning. Periods of snow and blowing snow beginning late in the morning. Amount 2 to 4 cm. Wind south 30 km/h becoming northwest 60 gusting to 80 in the morning. High plus 2 with temperature falling to minus 17 in the afternoon. Wind chill minus 30.

Thursday...A mix of sun and cloud with 60 percent chance of flurries. Low minus 27. High minus 24.

Friday...Sunny. Low minus 30. High minus 24.

Saturday...Sunny. Low minus 26. High minus 17.

Back to work

I start my new job today. In 1 1/2 hours, actually. Am I excited? Not really. I wanna sit at home and spin, not answer questions about computers.

Word for the wise: If you know something inside and out, do not pay a schwak of money to go to school to prove what you already know. You will be trapped in an inferior aspect of that job forever.

Wheeze....

Happy New Year!

My day started off at about 1pm by slamming the cat's tail in the bathroom door. I walked into the bathroom, where Phong was in his usual spot on the warm part of the floor by the bathtub. I hears Amie gallumping up the stairs toward the bathroom so I quicky started to close the door, and it screamed. I turned around to see half an orange tail in the crevice left between the door and door jam. Oops, sorry Phong.

Now I can't find my inhaler. I can't remember where I put it down, and this stupid cough is *really* getting on my nerves. So is my forever running nose and sneezing. I know what's making it worse, and I'm slooooowly coming to the realization that the ratties will have to go. But not yet. I'm not ready.