Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Is it Fall Yet?

I see I have been slack and have totally skipped a week.

Our weather continues warm but we are to have a cold front come through tomorrow, I think it is? It will take our highs from high 80s/low 90s, to mid 80s. Also lower humidity, so it should be nice!

I got my hair trimmed on Friday--a long over due chore. I luckily found a new gal, who did a nice job and respected my request not to use scented stuff. We figured out that my hair was unhappy with the chlorine it is exposed to when I swim. Worked out a routine to take care of that and it is working well. I could tell a difference after the first time I tried it and it is even better after the second time. It was as easy as wetting my hair with tap water before getting in the pool, and giving it a rinse with water and vinegar before washing my hair after swimming.

I am really hoping to get it together this fall! The nice weather always manages to trick me into forgetting that Thanksgiving and Christmas are just around the corner. You would think that the Halloween candy in the stores, and the Christmas stuff out already would be clue enough, but somehow my brain still ignores that in favor of listening to the weather.

On the handcraft front....I finished spinning up the mint julep batts. I started plying the two bobbins from that last batt last week, and finished it on Sunday. It almost totally filled the bobbin. I still have to get it wound off onto the niddy noddy and washed. Then there is the rest of the singles on the first two bobbins that still need to be plied. I think I will get a pretty good amount of yardage out of this. This is that almost full bobbin....

Saturday, September 19, 2009

Talk Like a Pirate Day

Aaaargh, me hearties!

Well, enough of that--lol.

I took a step out of the usual routine and went to Magic Kingdom on Wednesday to spend part of the day with Becky, Tom, Zack, Maddie and Jake. The weather was great--well, hot, but no rain! The park wasn't crowded at all, so we spent the day never having to stand in line. (well, maybe a tiny line now and then-LOL) That was really wonderful!

It was really good seeing everyone. Jake sure is getting big--way bigger than last time I saw him. The kids seemed to be having a really good time. We had 4 goes at shooting alien bad guys and made the universe a little safer for everyone--hahah. We had the fun of seeing Tinker Bell making friends with Jake--he wasn't having any of that---I think he was getting hungry and tired but wasn't expressing it yet.

I left about 4 o'clock to head home and had a good trip, with the traffic not being bad at all.

I actually went and swam three times this week. Part of my plan to stop being so lazy and to take advantage of the pool while it is still warm enough--haha.

I have been doing more spinning. I am 3/4 of the way done spinning the last of the mint julep batts. Just as a guess, I should have a skein at least as big as the one pictured in the previous post, by the time the rest of this is spun and plied. I really like the way this yarn looks.

I got smart finally.....haha. The sparkly stuff (firestar) in these batts tends to stick to my slacks when I am spinning (leaving strands of firestar here and there). I have been putting my silk scarf on my lap before I start spinning and no more fiber stuck to the pants. I am glad I thought to do it.

I will have to start thinking about what I want to spin next. Or it might be time to play with the drum carder some more and make up some of my own batts? I have plenty of things to add to the mix now--a number of different colors of bamboo, and some tussah silk. I should be able to come up with some good combinations.

Avast ye lubbers!

Monday, September 14, 2009

Rainy Weekend

That just about says it all. We had a cloudy, gloomy day on Saturday. The sun didn't really peek out till way later in the day. It rained off and on, and rained that night too. More rain Sunday afternoon and Sunday night. I have to remember to go check the rain gauge.

There wasn't much going on--football on the TV and time spent on the computers. It sure was a quiet weekend! Mike had the beeper, so quiet was good, actually.

I got the plied Mint Julep yarn off the bobbin and got it washed and finished. It has been hanging in the bathroom, drying. I took it down and took some photos--it looks really pretty, if I do say so myself! I have hung it back up--I want to make sure it is really totally dry before I tuck it away. Wool can hold so much water before it feels wet, I don't like to take chances. So, here is the first skein of Mint Julep!



Oops, second photo is blurry! But, it has the dime to give an idea of thickness, so I will leave it. Might try to take a better photo later and replace it.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Too Late for a 09-09-09 Post

I really would have loved to post at 09.09 a.m. on 09/09/09, but I didn't think about it till too late--haha. Oh well.

All is fine here. Mike and I are keeping busy, as usual. There hasn't been much photo taking going on. It is the wrong season for birds, except for the ones that seem to be here all year, and they have been photographed half to death. There are no little grand-daughters here to take photos of either. And no trips to Disney since the end of July. Between trips out of town and rain chances that seemed to go up almost every weekend, we just haven't made it over. However, I am sure that will change soon, as the forecasts are starting to look better again and it won't be too much longer before we are into the beginning of the dry season.

I have been doing a little bit of swimming at the folks pool. I made it up to 25 laps the other day--not sure how that translates to laps in a regular public sized pool. I did measure the pool back before Mom and Dad moved in, but I don't remember now just how long it is--except not very long--haha. I keep reminding myself to swim while I can, before it is too cool to do it in comfort. I hope we don't have another colder-than-usual winter like we did last year.

I haven't been knitting much but am still spinning--sometimes several times a week.
Here are the two bobbins of Mint Julep that I have spun so far. I have been plying these and almost have a bobbin full now. I still have one batt of this fiber to spin, too. The yarn is coming out really nice and soft, and looks pretty.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

It is Thursday!

Already.....the week is almost over.

We have had rain. A lot of rain. Wednesday morning I found 3+ inches of rain in the rain gauge, and that was before it rained some more. I was on my way to knitting, and so didn't take the time to dump the gauge. So, I have no idea how much it rained during the day while I was out. Although it has rained more since then, there hasn't been a significant amount of rain in the gauge, which is nice. We have finally had some periods of sunny-ness though, so I won't complain about the gray, cloudy parts too much!

The number of dragonflies buzzing around has been on the increase. Not sure what that is all about, but I am seeing them everywhere. At least they don't bite, so I don't mind them--lol.

I finally got with the program and joined Facebook. There are actually people I remember from high school on there. How wild, eh?

I went to the folks and swam today, for the first time in ages again. I always enjoy it and wish I would make the time to do it more often!

I have spun 4 days this week so far, which has been wonderful. I had finished the first batt of the mint julep, and I'm halfway through the second batt already. I really like the color, and the way it is spinning up. I will be interested to see what the finished yarn is going to look like.