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.

I know I've been quiet. It's amazing how all at one time there can be wonderful things mixed with dreadful things. It's also hard sometimes to know how much to write and how much to keep to myself.
Remember back in January when I mentioned Lou's Dad?
Well, he had the laryngectomy in January after going through chemo and radiation all last summer. Those two things had no effect on the cancer. It continued to grow. So they cut it out. He hasn't had a voice since winter and it's been hard. Two weeks ago the visiting nurse didn't like the looks of things and insisted that Pop go to the doctor. The doctor must not have liked it either because he did a biopsy right there. The cancer is back and growing quickly. Lou left 2 weeks ago and I went with the little kids to visit in Delaware this past week. It's a hard thing to see. This man who I've grown to love. Hospice is coming in now and they've said that their main purpose is pain control.
Here he is with his brothers this past October when we were hopeful that he'd beaten this terrible disease.
I'm here at home. My husband is in Delaware. If it weren't for the shop I'd be there with him doing all I could to help. Here's the part where I'm torn between the shop hours and just running off and doing what I want to be doing, which is to be with my whole family.

Two Hundred and One Days

Got this today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

June 13, 2007

Dear Margaret,

You've been anxiously waiting. The SOAR confirmations are complete! This email is jam packed with the details as well as weblinks for further information.

This year we had an overwhelming response. While we tried to confirm everyone into their first or second choice of workshop we were not able to place everyone due to the number of applicants. While we would love to be able to accommodate all who are interested in attending SOAR, space limitations at Shanty Creek prevent this from being a possibility. You requeststed registration for Workshop&Retreat and have a status of Confirmed.

Your complete registration details are:
Retreat Yes TRUE

First choice workshop confirmed: TRUE, standby number NA
Spinning 201 Rudy Amann, Materials Fee: $30

Yeah, Margaret, that's my name don't wear it out.

Also, got this yesterday!

Hey there,

frecklegirl has invited you to Ravelry!
"Here you go! Thanks for your interest in our little site.
Let me know if you have any questions or problems!

Jess"

Now, I'm not sure how I'm going to have time to use all of that stuff buuuutttt it sure will be fun trying.

So let's sum up the rest of the year plus a little:

Galina!!!!

Sleepover with new friends!!!!!

SOAR for a whole week!!!! Not only is this 7 days of spinning loveliness but also 7 days that nobody is asking me what's for dinner. (I don't know whay that's been bugging me so much lately.)

Spinning Spider Jenny at my shop!!!!

Christmas!!!!!!

10 Days of Family fun at the Polynesian Hotel on the Monorail line with a Magic Kingdon View in Disney World!!!!!!!!!!!

That is a huge amount of exclamations to look forward to.

The Fiber of my Being

Again with the pictures. This is a shot of the shelves which hold a lot of my "fleece in the grease". Of course they don;t all fit in there but I've made a valiant effort. I came back from Spinner's Flock on Saturday with 9 more! I have absolutely no self control.

This cormo I got a short time ago. I just like it and so I took a picture.

Gotland Lamb!!! MMM Good.

This one I got a couple of months ago. California Red. It's Romney-like but very enjoyable to spin. There are reddish fibers mixed with the white and so it looks a little pinkish. I love it.

This one I did get on Saturday The staple length is sooo long and the luster! I need to wash some of this tomorrow and spin a sample. What kind, you ask? Can't remember. It's too late. I'll remember tomorrow and edit this with the correct info. Coopworth for crying out loud!

Black as night Romeldale. So beautiful and fine.

Rambouillet! How I love you Rambouillet.

This is a new Jacob to replace the prior Jacob which was mysteriously removed from the shop and carefully separated into two colors and washed and placed in storage for an upcoming spinning project. The thief is considering a cardigan with a black stripe around the bust area.

Believe ti or not, this is a WHITE Blue Faced Leicester fleece! I'd better wash this. It's a pretty small fleece so I think I'll wash the whole thing and sell it clean.

And this lovely thing is a beautiful bat which was carded on the Strauch Petite Carder by my own personal Batt Boy. He is the son of Erika. He spent some hours in my shop a couple of weeks ago and he was getting pretty bored - he's 7 you know. So I have a bag of fiber I keep for when there are odd little bits floating around the shop. I intended to take them to the mill to have a special blend made. I gave the bag of fiber and the carder to the kid and he started carding and processing. Altogether he made 6 batts I think. I kept this one and shipped the others home with him to spin. He spins on his drop spindle but he really wants his own wheel.

I'm waiting for him to come back and make me some more because...

here are my singles and....

here is the finished yarn. This yarn was spun on the Schacht- Reeves 24" Saxony with a short backward draft method. Due to the fact that the batt was only 1oz and that's all I had I plied it with Henry's Attic Cascade Silk - 2000 ypp. I LOVE this yarn. I'm pretty sure it can't be reproduced so I need to figure out what to do with this little bit. I probably should go back and see exactly how many yards I have so the planning can be more intelligent.

In other news, I'm having a sleepover. In August. In celebration of Galina. Erika is coming. Kate is coming. I am typing in short sentences due to hyperventilating. I am so excited I can hardly breath! Am I more excited about Galina or the other girls? I can't tell but I do know that it's going to be a fuuuuuuun breakfast when we all show up to meet George and Galina.

If you were interested in the Galina Workshop call me. Only a couple spots are left. If you have to travel to get here I probably could fit you into the sleepover too. It's gonna be fun. We're gonna have snacks.

O.K. before I start thinking too hard about snacks I'd better go to sleep. I'm hungry and it's too late to eat.

This was my total on Saturday morning. I've got 3 more weeks left on the program so it looks as if I'm not going to reach my goal in the allotted time. The good news is I may continue to lose a little during the stabilization phase. Then I have a year of maintenance where I could go back on the weight loss program and keep losing if I choose.

The other thing I haven't talked about is the 14.5 pounds I lost on Weight Watchers before I started LA Weightloss. Those 14.5 added to the 33.4 bring me to just under 48 altogether in the last 8 months. That's nothing to sneeze at considering when I started I was right at a loose size 20 pants and now I'm in a snug 10 which will be a comfortable 10 in another 5ish pounds.
I haven't worn a size ten pants since I was 25 years old!




Also, this! Disney World here I come! Already started planning the trip. I LOVE Disney World. I would live there if I could afford it. I could be like Eloise only I would be at the Grand Floridian and I wouldn't need a nanny.

Nothing knitting to talk about. Still spinning that support skein and working on the same shawl. More updates later.

Bed of Roses?

I'm trying to not get behind again so here's what I've been doing since Tuesday night. I wound these two balls of Briar Rose yarn. The one on top is Angel Face (2500 yards). It's alpaca. That one took forever to wind but it is a beauty. I need to find an appropriate pattern for it.
The one in the middle is Sea Pearl. 50% Merino and 50% Tencel. (1000 yards) That one took less than half the time to wind. (That was a joke.)
The one on the bottom is just funny and I'm not sure what it's made out of. I think it's pretty fine and strong like silk.

I started this today from the Sea Pearl using the After Hours Shawl Pattern for Briar Rose.
I've had this yarn for a while but I figured I'd better get to work since I'll be needing a shop sample! Yep, I'm going to be carrying the Briar Rose yarns in my shop! Well, I'll have a good selection of the Angel Face and Sea Pearl and then the others I'll have sample skeins and can do special orders.
I love these fibers and can't wait to have them. Don't worry, I'll only think about rolling naked in them - I won't actually do it. What if someone walked in?