And So Begins a Busy Week

I've got no pictures. I've been thinking about taking pictures but...

Galina is coming in just 4 days.

There's lots to do. The shop is a wreck. I need to rearrange things so I can make sure everybody fits. I wanted to have my latest weaving project warped before I fold up the Wolf Pup but it doesn't look like it's going to happen.

I'm picking up Kate on Thursday and Erika will be here then too. Lots of fun and snacks and knitting and spinning and laughing. I haven;t been so excited and nervous in a very long time.

I need to get back to work now. I'm filling out my entry form for the Michigan State Fair. I'll let you know how it goes.

Mashed Potato Time

Now, while we were on the East Coast for something unpleasant, there was some fun to be had. Ryan rode the tractor in my parents' driveway.

Lou Rode the Tractor in my parents' driveway.

Action Shot

We got to see my Grammy. Her name is Margaret. Everybody calls her Maggie. My name is Margaret. Nobody calls me Maggie. Maggie's name is Margaret and, well, you get the picture. Maybe it just skips a generation. Isn't my Grammy cute?

So, here's a conversations for you.

Me: Hi Grammy, we're going to pick you up and take you out to dinner tomorrow.

Grammy: Oh, that sounds good.

Me: Where do you want to go?

Grammy: You know me. I'll go anywhere. If the car is going, I'll hop in. If you guys are going somewhere I'll just go where ever.

Me: How about Red Robin. I love that place.

Grammy: Oh......They don't have mashed potatoes.

Me: OK where do you want to go?

Grammy: I'll just go anywhere. You know me.

So I called my mom. Mom, where should we go for dinner? Grammy wants mashed potatoes. So my mom chose a steak place - Longhorn or something like that. They DO have mashed potatoes.

We drive to the restaurant and just as we're driving up to it Grammy says "Oh, is that that steak place?......." Then silence.

We ate our dinner which, of course, according to Grammy was too expensive and they didn't give her enough mashed potatoes.

She's a funny funny girl.

We had dinner with Mark and Deena. Lou is friends with Mark since high school. He sells season tickets for the Philadelphia Soul. You know, arena football. Deena is a school principal. We went to PF Chang's. I love that place.

There was a lot of eating out while I was gone. I'm back on the diet again today.

Maggie lost another tooth while we were gone. 3 teeth, 3 dollars.

Lou and I both got our haircut by Gwendolynn. She cut my hair for years before we moved and she's so sweet. If you live in the area go there. The shampoo girls are great and the scalp massages can't be beat and they're included in the price!

And, while I was gone my stuff was in the county fair. I got a gold ribbon award for the BFL skein that I spun on my Golding Spindle. All of this stuff will be going to the State Fair next and we'll see what happens.

This is Lilly again. She'll be in the State Fair too and then retire so I can actually wear her.

And the Qiviut. All in all not a bad year for the Fair.

Well Loved

Louis David Smith 1935 - 2007

He'll be missed.

It's All True

I'm going to learn this and sing it every day!

Re-Humanise Yourself

My latest completed skein. It's Lorna's Laces Roving in the Asian colorway. When I got these rovings in in December I was a little disappointed with their feel. They weren't as soft as the Lorna's yarns. But I looked at this particular color over and over and finally decided to try it out. It was spun on the Schacht Matchless double treadle using double drive. I did plenty of experimenting as you can see from the unevenness of the yarn. There was the short forward draft, the short backward draft and a little long draw thrown in there just for spite. This stuff takes some patience to spin. Predrafting and preparation is a huge key to being successful. I must say that the finished product feels good. I like the weight of it and I like the drape.

Yes we did go to the Renaissance Hotel and it was quite fab. We got an upgrade to a junior suite. That means that we had a bedroom with a full bath and a living room with a half bath. Both had televisions and floor to ceiling windows . The above photo is of my morning breakfast right before we left.

The next photos are the view out our windows. This one shows the Windsor Casino across the Detroit River. Hello Canadians!

Down the river a little bit - not showing up well in this picture is the bridge into Canada. I love this bridge and think it is very pretty.

The Renaissance Center is HUGE. It houses the Marriott as well as the world headquarters for General Motors, a shopping center, food court and several very nice restaurants. We had lunch at Seldom Blues. It was a very good lunch and I'd like to go back for dinner. They have live music in the evening and a completely different dinner menu.

We had room service for dinner and I won't go into details about any other parts of the trip.

Lou left this morning to head back to Delaware and I will hopefully see him in a week and a half for the Police at the Palace at Auburn Hills. I know that's a link to Sting's website but he is babelicious, no?

Let's Change the Subject

Lou's coming home for a quick visit this week and on Thursday we're planning a little alone time at the above hotel. It's the Marriott Renaissance in Detroit. Lovely hotel. Can't wait. Concierge level you know. It's one of the perks of having a husband who's never home. When he travels it's mostly Fairfield and Courtyards but when he takes me places I get the good stuff because of all the points he's collected.

Again this is a huge mishmash but here goes. While I was in Delaware Brittney painted the kitchen. This is the color of the wallpaper and trim before the painting.

Here it is after the painting. It's a very lovely red with the very palest of yellows for the trim.

I know that neither of these are very good pictures but the kitchen is in the middle of the house and the lighting stinks. The cabinets are very dated and I hate the tile counter tops but the paint makes a huge difference until I can get my crap together and budget for a real kitchen remodel.

Maggie in the pool in Delaware with her cousins Taylor and Kelly. Hard to believe that 6 months ago this kid was petrified of swimming pools.

Did I mention that my parents came for a visit? It's been a couple of years since they'd been here and it was the first time my mom was introduced to my fibery world in depth.

Ok. funny story. Before my mom came her friend offered her some wool to give to me. Usually they throw away all of the wool when they sheer these sheep. Never one to turn down a free fleece I said "Great! What kind of sheep is it from?" Mom said "I don't know I'll ask".

A couple of days later she calls me back and says that her friend asked the person who owns the sheep and they said.....

Ready?

Grazing Sheep!

Well, I just started laughing and laughing. I'm still laughing.

So she brought the bag of wool. It was HUGE. It took up half my trunk. It weighed over 30 pounds. There were 7 fleeces inside and it was good medium wool. I thought it was Romney or something close. It was very dirty but pretty fine as far as medium wool goes. I saved out a fleece and took the rest to be processed at Zeilinger's. Turns out it's Horned Dorset. It's very lovely and I can't wait to get the roving back.

O.K. here's another short story. My mom is in my shop for the first time and I have some posters hanging showing different sheep breeds. She is studying them one by one and finally says, "So can you show me a picture of a regular sheep?" Again I am laughing and I say"WHAT?" She says, "You know regular sheep, like everybody has." I said, "I'll show you a regular sheep if you can show me a regular dog."

Here's my dad. Cute isn't he? And a saint for putting up with the mother for so long.

Ryan needed a haircut. Nothing like trying to get an even cut on a moving target. He only obliged because he watched my dad get his hair cut first.

Ryan's first scooter. I meant to post this earlier for my darling but was sidetracked. So there you go Lou - now that you'll see it in person in 2 days.

We went to Frankenmuth to drop off the fleeces and also show my parents around. My dad took a carriage ride with the kids while my mom and I went to the craft fair that was there that weekend.

Here are some bronze shoes and socks which are part of one of the Frankenmuth fountains.

We ate at Zehnder's. It was my first time and it was delicious! You can get family style chicken dinners here with everything you could want. I would totally recommend this place. If you don;t want chicken they do have other things on the menu too.

At the end of your meal everyone gets ice cream with a little plastic toy in it. My dad's was the mermaid.

Nora's toes just cause they're cute. Eight month old baby toes in nail polish and little thong sandals. Adorable.

I finally finished the support spindle skein. It's qiviut and silk done on an Ann Grout Acorn spindle. It took me 2 full months of regular spinning to finish it. It weighs 1.05 ounces so I need to do some more for the wrap card. I think there is about 650 yards. I can' remember. I did count it but I'll have to get back to you.

Look at that! I think I'm going to put it in the fair. I wrapped it on a plastic niddy and washed it and dried it right on the niddy. I really want to try slapping a skein around because I've never finished a skein by fulling but this is not the one to experiment with.