It All Comes Back to the Whipped Cream

I have a huge amount to talk about tonight. I'm feeling a little gabby and since it's almost 11Pm and I don't think anyone would appreciate a phone call at this hour to talk about nonsense I'll just tell anyone who is willing to read my gobbledy gook.
The picture above is what I brought up to bed with me tonight. Under that pile of whipped cream is Hot Chocolate from Williams-Sonoma. It;s a little pricey for a tin of it but if you don't share it, it can last for a long time. (You know what I mean Kate?)
Also, I was checking out Betheany and she had a link to here. I put in my blog address. Go there and check it out. Hilarious way to waste a lot of time.

I bought this Kid Mohair when I was in Rhinebeck. I've been a little afraid to wash it because I didn't want to mess up the locks and so I just put it in the shop. Nobody is even looking at it. I guess they don't want to wash it either. So I took a pretty big handful and put it in a bucket of the hottest water I could get along with Meadows Heavy Duty Wool Wash. I let it soak for a long time - at least a half hour. I dumped the filthy water and washed it again with the wool wash and then I rinsed in hot water.

This is what I got. It is beautiful and fabulously soft. There is still some VM in it - as you can see - and I have to figure out how to get more of that out. I may just try flicking it a little. I washed more today. I weighed out 8 ounces before washing because I curious about how much weight you lose due to dirt. it will be dry by tomorrow so I'll weigh it and see.

I probably won't weigh it tomorrow though since tomorrow is shopping day. I need a dress for a wedding on Saturday. I have to get my kids a couple more Christmas presents and I need a wedding gift for the soon to be happy couple. The only real plan I have is to go to J. Jill and Chicos. If they don't pan out I'm lost. I guess the mall will be the next choice. Today is Penny's birthday. She is 1 year old. This picture is from yesterday. She seems like a short dog...until she stands on her back legs. She can reach stuff off of the counters and the table. I'm sick of it.

Yesterday I took little pieces of bread and soaked them in Tabasco sauce. I placed the pieces of bread all along the counter. She ate 2 of them. In the photo she is rubbing her nose on the floor. She also did a lot of licking, she drank a huge amount of water and then laid in the hallway by herself for a while. I may have to do this again in a couple of days and we'll see what happens. Maybe she'll decide that people food is too risky.

Today I was in the shop for my regular hours. I had only one phone call. So I spun some shetland and started plying. The singles were spun on the Schacht Matchless double treadle and I am plying on the Louet because I'm too lazy to set up the Schacht with the scotch tension option. The double drive just doesn't give enough take up tension for plying. The Louet is a dream to ply on though.

Here is my new friend. Schacht Baby Wolf 8 heddle loom. On Mondays from 2:30 to 4:30 there is a weaving class in the shop. I decided that I should take advantage of it. It's my shop and shouldn't I know about this stuff? So anyway, Betty showed me how to warp the thing on Monday and today she came and helped me get started. I warped with the Louet Merino in black. I am weaving with Mango Moon Recycled Silk. I have about 8 skeins of it and I have tried knitting with it but we didn't bond. So, on Monday morning while I was considering what to weave I came across these skeins and decided to put them to use.

I got almost 12 inches done today. I'm doing a twill pattern. I am only using 4 of the 8 heddles. This is great fun. Remember when I taught myself a little weaving on the Ashford Knitter's Loom? O.K. maybe not. I seem not to have told you about it here.
I thought it was kind of boring. I didn't love it. Now I want to be clear here. I have only done a small portion of a scarf on the rigid heddle loom. I also have only done a small portion of a scarf on the Schacht loom. I prefer the one with the peddles. My feet are busy, my hands are busy, nothing is trying to fall off of the table...4 hours into the whole process and I'm ready to go for the Golding. The loom I'm weaving on now sells for a little less than $1800. It's still not cheap but the Golding is FAB! I could get one to match the Golding wheel I own in my dreams.
Anyway, the scarf is going to be very soft and I'm glad I put on enough to make two scarves so if I finish before Christmas somebody will get a lovely scarf too. (I get the first one though)

And now for the Santa portion of our show. This Santa was sponsored by "Happy Feet" the movie. Remember the good old days when Santa's appearance was sponsored by the mall or the department store where he was appearing. This was a huge advertisement for the movie. The kids loved it of course and I just was mostly amused by the change... There was even a huge snow globe with snow falling down from the top. There was a sign outside the globe that explained that the snow was made from rice...for our enjoyment. I wondered whether that meant they wanted us to snack on it.
Then I looked at the prices. I decided we wouldn't buy any pictures. We would just stop and talk to Santa and I would just take a picture with my own camera.

Then we got up to Santa and right outside the gateway was this sign. I don't remember this policy any other year. I was not happy. We got the cheapest pictures and I took a picture with my own camera any way. I guess since we were paying they didn't care about my one picture.
I may write a letter to the mall about my disappointment with this new policy.

But how could we wait in line so long and then miss this picture?

Ryan was playing with Santa's beard and asking where was his sleigh and where were the reindeer. He was touching Santa's hat and getting very comfortable there on Santa's lap.

On the way out of the mall I caught a glimpse of Williams-Sonoma. Which brings me back to my first point. Whipped cream on Hot Chocolate. Yum, YUM!