Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Ah! The Sun Is Shining!

This is only the beginning of late Fall, early Winter.  We have had snow.  I know it wasn't a lot of snow, but what little bit is on the leaves in the shady parts of the yard are still there.  It is also windy.
This is not my favorite time of year-can you guess?

I am making a very emotional decision to sell my Ashford spinning wheel.  A young woman from Joplin is coming on Saturday to look at it and to try it out.  I know it will go home with her.  I am very emotionally tied to this wheel.  It feels good on a gut level to send it home with her.  She is a beginner and it is a basic wheel. 

Because it will be gone soon, I am trying really hard to finish up the blue yarn I have and get it plied.  I have been plying on the Woolee Winder that is on the Ashford.  It is faster and more efficient than the way I would do it on the Sequoyah.  An inconvenience for the short time until Saturday, but do-able.

I am also knitting on the red sweater.  It is about nine inches from the ribbing.  It is actually looking like something now.  I started a pair of handspun, handknit socks that I am doing for a friend as a surprise.  She spotted the yarn at some point and said, "Those look like socks to me."  It didn't sell at the fiber show, so she is getting a pair of socks.  The colorway is coming out stripes, which surprised me.  I don't remember plying stripes.  Oh, well, still pretty.

My friend YC lost her close friend today after two weeks in the hospital.  She went into organ failure last week, but was holding herself together until her mother could get there.  Such a time of transitions for everyone.

Patty goes to the groomer tomorrow.  I am thrilled.  She has such wiry hair, and I noticed that some of the curly stuff was in her eyes.  Time to get a trim.

We are supposed to get some warmer weather by the end of the week.  It is still below normal for this time of year, but I will imagine it is warmer than the 10 degrees this morning.

I have finally sorted and disposed of the last three boxes from my friend's storage unit.  It was bothering me to walk around the stuff and the smell was aggravating my sinuses.  I know it was the right thing when a HUGE brown recluse spider crawled of a box of letters I stirred up.  I sprayed it with ant/roach spray.  And I burned that mess right away.

Not anything else to report.  I think my neighbor is finally on the mend from her foot surgery.  She isn't very strong, and the walker is hurting her arms.  She went to the doctor to get stitches out yesterday and I haven't checked in on her.  I imagine they are tired of my bringing food over, but poor husband is trying to do everything in the house. 

So back to spinning pretty blue yarn.  It is so lovely in the sunlight.

Have a good week.  Stay warm.  Put on your woolies.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

It's Gray-It's Chilly-It's Just November Already!

I have been working around the yard trying so hard to clean up.  I will say my yard is a mess.  A friend said it best, "Your yard is feral."  Oh, well, that's the way it is.  I have been picking up things left lying around and put my tools away in their little shed.  I have run the gas through the lawnmowers to put gas stabilizers in the engines. 

I also picked up and swept the deck.  I put the indigo buckets and the dyeing jars under the table.  I have the big ole iron pot tipped over. 

Inside I have also been nesting, trying to get the toys situated in the rooms and by the chairs that I want them.  I feel like Goldilocks with my new e-spinner.  I think I have finally settled on a chair and a small bench to place it.  It seems to work well so far.

It is strange, isn't it, to have a spinning project in the studio and in the living room.  Nice!

Patty is looking like a poor wooly dog.  I really should break down and take her to a groomer for a little trim.  Noodles is in snuggle mood.  If I am sitting he wants in my lap.  If I get up, he snuggles in the warm spot.  I placed a felted wooly thing in the bottom of a basket, and he is there at the moment.

I think the majority of the cleaning out of my friend's storage units is done.  There is a little bit of nothing left in one unit.  JH helped me recyle almost all the rest of the books and National Geographics.  All the metal stuff is recycled.  Whew!  Just some burning left to do.

A friend's landlord makes extra money by selling used appliances-washers, dryers, air conditioners, etc.  He was able to get one of the old washers inside tub for me.  I am going to make it into a fire pit for this winter.  I like to sit by the fire and watch the flames.  It will be nice when I finish it.

So all the preparation is almost done now to settle in for the winter and the winter projects.  I am knitting a simple easy top-down raglan sleeve cardigan.  I am on the body of that now.  Then I have to decide what to do for my winter project.  I don't think it will be as complicated as last year's.

The birds are into full-fledge feeding at the three feeders.  It took some time to get the suet going, but I noticed two Downey's fighting yesterday and then the winner gorging on the suet.  It is a sign that the weather has turned.

I am spinning some yarn for me.  I love the subtle coloring of the deep steel gray with slips of reddish pink, yellow, and teeny bit of green.  I think it has to be something for me.  I also saved some purple for another something.  So the spinning is for me right now.

I have discovered a sight on Facebook that auctions fibers periodically.  I won two a while back, but only 4 ozs of each.  The last one I bid on is two skeins of orange-y colorway.  I am spinning one of the first ones, and it is really pretty.  I am imagining it to be a chevron patterned scarf.  I think it will be pretty that way.  4 oz should be adequate for a scarf.

Nothing else new.  Just a little chat for the week.  Have a great rest of the week.

Sunday, November 2, 2014

Time To Change-Time To Prepare

We finally had our first hard freeze two nights ago.  On Facebook folks are posting their first snows.  Ugh!  I am so not ready for that at all.

This week has been the week I have begun to get ready.  I put gas stabilizer in the two mowers and ran them to get the engines ready for the winter.  I put them under the back deck and covered them.
I will put one more tarp over the two of them, but for now they are almost ready.

I moved the tool shed this morning and I gathered up all the various yard tools that needed to be put away.  I put the watering can in there too. 

Yesterday I rearranged the living room and swept out corners.  I have begun to rub all the wood furniture with orange and oil to clean them well.  It is time to close the windows.  Although leaves come in the back door, there should be less dust than before. 

It is that time of year when I get prepared for indoor activities.  I am through with my wandering around and I am planning winter projects.  The leaves are falling fast now.

I have all three bird feeders up and a sack of thistle seed.  I am filling the feeders daily.  There is a mad frenzy to eat and stay well through the winter now.

The past week I have been cleaning out the storage units that held my friend GO's possessions.  It is hard physical labor and it is dirty and dusty.  There is a part of me that is very sad to think that this is what happens to one's life after death.  All the things you cherished and loved just "stuff" now.  My friend CF came and stayed five days to help.  G's and my friend JH has been a blessing.  I asked him at one time "Where are all those friends he had when we need them the most?"

I am also in the mood to clean out my stuff, but right now I am just organizing things.  The last three weeks have flashed by.  I had one week of preparing for a fiber show in Missouri.  After returning home from that OS came for a visit with her dogs.  Then I had two days to change the linens and clean the bathroom.  I swept the floors.  I then drove to Jasper for a book signing.  I spent the night with CF and then she returned to help me this week with the storage unit. 

Now I am ready to settle down and just knit and spin and be.

I am excited that Netflix has Season Six of one of my BBC detective shows.  So today I am going to binge on George Gently and spin yarn.  I get up to stretch and move around.  I move things around and throw things away.  It is a job only I can do, and I have procrastinated long enough.

So have a great first week of November.  Where did the year go?  A year ago I was caring for my friend after he had a stroke.  I lost three months of the winter, and it made the winter go pretty fast.  I will hopefully have a quiet and settled winter this year. 

"The best way out is always through." = Robert Frost