Spinning, knitting, dyeing and ridiculous-looking dogs
My cousin’s band is competing the chance to play in the Tempe Music Festival; if you have a moment, please scroll down to the bottom of this page and vote for The Vigilantes. Feel free to listen to the other candidates, but you’ll end up voting for The Vigilantes anyway. 
Don’t you love the internets? Now you can support other people’s kid’s bands without having to buy any waxy gross chocolate at all!
So, small town life is not without its big city hazards, that is to say, the crazy busybody old man who wants to know what it is you are packing, and then without listening to your answer, tells you that it is ILLEGAL to send in the mail what you are sending, that it is a CHEMICAL and there are LAWS and it will EXPLODE! And so on and such forth.
For the curious, it was a gallon bottle of Fibermaster, a scour discontinued by Louet. It is lovely and the continued availability of it will be missed.
But it will not explode. Not unless you attach some dynamite to it. I just shook my head and politely disagreed, and I am coming to believe that the nicer you are to mean people, the more egged on to @ssholery they are.
But what is to be gained by being mean as well? Perhaps a shorter conflict, but a hell of a bad taste in your mouth. And I try to only put good tasting things in my mouth and keep anger and bile out. Trying. Complaining on a blog feels like a very clichéd and sneaky way of circumventing that hippy goal though.
Speaking of being hippies and trying to be better about putting our money where our mouth is and supporting local etc., we bought a bed (and frame)! You walk into this shop and smell delicious sheepiness and it’s all over, no other mattress will do.
We’d just been in Black’s Furnishings (Yreka’s furniture store) and bought a leather couch, pretty close to our idea of what we wanted, close enough I think that we’ll be happy with it for a long long time. We’ve been wanting leather furniture for ages, they’re better for Nick’s asthma, comfortable and easy to clean. We’ll keep it covered in blankets though because the dogs can be rough on furniture, what with their nails and stealing milkshakes. Blankets can be washed easily, upholstery just sucks up the dander, even with our carpet cleaner.
Anyway, Crivens likes it.
We had thought about ordering a furniture set, finding exactly what we wanted.
Turns out, Crate and Barrel makes exactly what we wanted. But this is still not the world where we will pay that much for furniture…even when we tell ourselves that it will last us twenty or more years…
And it turns out, we really needed a couch. Crivvie was peeved when we gave away her couch (our only couch) before moving, and the movers didn’t show up when we had been told to expect them–turns out we could have stayed nearly a week longer visiting our families, no big deal, right?–so we’ve been eating our meals hunkered on the floor.
Of course, the couch doesn’t really solve this since the dogs have taken it over, but it’s nice to have a cushy place to set your tuchus now and again. I really look forward to the rest of our furniture joining us.
Hey since I took so long to post this, our furniture arrived yesterday! Yay!
Anyway, back to the mattress/bed topic.
We’d just been in Black’s basement trying out their beds and mattresses. The Simmonseseseseses are very nice, but with that crazy pillowtop, how the heck do you get sheets that fit and stay on?
Plus, Nick and I, somehow, are hard on mattresses. And I don’t mean that in any flip “hehrheh, knowwhatAhmean?” wink, wink, nudge nudge way (well, not completely); I really don’t understand how two people who aren’t overweight manage to make such fancypantz mattresses as we’ve had get lumpy so quick.
We tried these fancy mattresses made of plastic and steel and I wondered how long they would last, really.
We were steered toward the Tempurpedic. I laid down on it and nearly freaked out.
Every time you lay down, or move, there’s this slight sinking shift. Which is what they want I guess, because according to the salesman you sink down to a level and then that’s it and everything’s even and your spine is in alignment with the spheres. Anyway, that weird motion without motion thing reminded me of that motion shifting of perception after lying down when you’re really sick.
I really don’t like that feeling.
Then there was that little discussion of “offgassing.“
We’d already called Shepherd’s Dream from home and Montague is the next town over, so they were our next stop.
And we laid down in the demo bed amidst all the sheepy smell, and it just felt like a good bed. Nothing fancy but a bed without chemicals, made locally and from locally raised sheep and processed conforming to organic principles. Any offgassing won’t be from the bed itself.
So there’s a saga for buying a bed, who knew there was so much to say about it?
But all the things we’re buying now in this frenzy of economy stimulation are things we’ve been waiting on, planning on.
For about four years now, anything big that’s needed replacing has been put off, and now we’re in what is basically a practice house. We bought a washer and dryer. Wow. A very nice washer and dryer. So they darn well better last. They are both supposed to be very energy and water efficient though. But slow. I’m kind of missing our old rental ones with three settings. Nostalgia, eh, whatcha gonna do?
On a different topic, I got the chance to meet up with my new friends, the Siskiyou Spinners and Knitters, or at least some of them.
Everyone was very nice and friendly. I didn’t have my wheel yet as it was Tuesday and the movers didn’t come until Wednesday, but I took my knitting and enjoyed chatting and watching, and finished the collar of my sweater. I still need to do the bottom rib, so no pictures yet, and it might be a while with all the unpacking we’ve to do.
I was blown away by the beautiful paint job of Jo Alice’s s17 though, created by her daughter:
I just can’t imagine anything more perfect.
And on another note:
It’s Tahoe’s birthday! Yay! Our little firstborn bastard son is seven today!
We may go on a little walk later, but Belu is still limping from some mystery accident (we heard a thump on the stone tile floor in the middle of the night and now she’s limping. So, not much of a mystery really. ) and Crivvie just stopped limping from the Jackrabbit Incident.
We were walking in a field and a guy walking his dogs around a neighboring hill flushed a big, fast Jack across our path.
Thus we discovered that Crivvie actually does have some prey drive, and she got pretty close.
But the wily Jack led them up and around a hill which had a lot of volcanic rock, and we got them back with cuts all over. Tahoe had blood dripping from his chin, so he may have biffed it or run the Jack into a hole out of sight. We’ll never know, since none of those involved in the incident are talking.
Most of the damage was self inflicted because of their double suspension gait and the interference, so I think we’ll have to get muttluks (or similar, if someone out there has experience with dog booties I’d love to hear opinions–I like the long liner cuff of the muttluks but it looks like the ruffwear booties fit well) with those long cuffs to protect their legs, and the paw coverings will also help them from knocking the tops of their toes.
Since Tahoe is white, his wounds looked most dramatic:
But we took them home and washed their wounds in a tub full of warm soapy water, and after all was revealed to be relatively minor despite all the blood, sprayed them with WoundKote, and let them be.
No one had any wounds that needed stitching, or breaks, thank goodness, although Crivvie’s limp worried us for a bit. But nothing was broken, or even very hot, so we let it go. She had really gouged the heck of the back of that front leg, and had a cut on the edge of that pad, so that may have been the cause.
Amazingly, that was the only cut pad out of the whole deal, and she’s done worse to her pads playing on the deck at home.
And since Tahoe had run up to a bloated looking fox terrier-type at dog beach the Sunday night before the movers came to say “hi” and got a bite in the side as a reward, we already had an anti-licking cone and him on precautionary antibiotics.
So we’d been putting the cone on whoever seems to find theirself most delicious at the moment.
And hoping this is the end of dog injuries for a while. Dogs are such fast healers though, everybody’s nearly a hundred percent again, except for Belu’s limp.
And Belu bit her tongue during the Jack Incident. Which made a nice change from her biting Tahoe or Crivens or me or Nick’s juicy upper thigh, even if by accident.
Heavens to Betsy, sorry about the novel!
It was a relatively easy drive, with a perfect detour in Irvine (best Chevron ever at the Culver exit) and a meetup in Sacramento with the World’s Handsomest Man to journey on with.
The Rainier from 33rd st Bistro was not as good as we remembered (but that’s just how it goes, eh) and not much has changed in our old neighborhood. The house we used to live at on J St was repainted the same colors, and the photography studio next door has become a really cool looking Peet’s Coffee, but that’s about it from a driveby standpoint.
Just a bit more driving north (about 250 miles) and we’re home!
Exterior & interior tour of the house is on youtube as well, if you’re curious.
The movers don’t show up until Wednesday, so the house is pretty empty yet. Which is kind of nice, since it’ll be irretrievable chaos once our stuff joins us.
Although I miss my wheel. We went to Web-sters yesterday, which is a yarn/spinning/weaving store and covers the bases quite nicely.
We are happy.
The movers come on Monday the 11th, so this weekend will be our last as San Diego County residents. Then we will be Yrekans! Huzzah!
Before they come though, I’m trying to sell off a bit of inventory. Wool isn’t heavy and it squishes down quite nicely, but y’know. I’ve got really good prices on the Euroflax and Gems yarns, and the woolwashes and kits and everything else. So please check it out and see if you can help us lighten the load.
In other news, boy have I got a lot of catching up to do with the blogging–going ll the way back to August even, and so many thank yous to say and everything. When we’ve got settled in Yreka, I will unleash a bewildering barrage of it all… that’s a promise (or a threat.)
Libélula schnozzle while sleeping on Daddy’s chest.
And here’s a picture I forgot to share from our Yreka trip:
Baaa, baa, baaa, baaa, baaa, baaaabrains!
(With apologies to John McCain)
Remember this? Hooray for summer movies! It has a release date in the US of June 29, according to this.
Whee.
Hey there, here’s the addy if anyone wants to give it a shot.
I’m not sure when I’ll be able to check in, but I hope it’s fun.
Keeping the catchup short and sweet (scroll down for dog stuff and whatnot):
Wheel Wound Wednesday!
Remember the 80s merino/tencel 50/50 blend I showed on the wheel a while back?
I finally got around to taking a picture of the two ply made from it:
This spins up like buttah, so it’s easy to make a low twist soft and silky single but I think next time I spin this up, I’ll spin with more twist to I can have a plied yarn with a more extreme angle of twist and more bounce. It’s 172 yards and 2.5 oz, and 10 wpi. Hmmm…a Rosechapeau from Hilari?
I finished spinning the 80s merino singles to make a 3 ply worsted weight, and have plied up four skeins:
This comes from me not paying enough attention and letting slack get into a ply and letting the twist run along past it. I didn’t use my ghetto homemade plying card and I really should have.
The Victoria’s lazy kate is not tensioned, so the bobbins spin a little more freely and it makes it easier for that to happen. After the first time I saw that (when skeining up the first bobbin) I stuck a sports bra on the middle post of the lazy kate, and it provided resistance so the lazy kate was tensioned. (Why a sports bra? It was on the floor next to the spinning chair. I’m a slob.) The next bobbin after that, I had cleaned the house and thus the sports bra was nowhere around the spinning chair. I lifted a paper towel from a nearby table and wedged that around the middle post. That worked just fine. Then, one of the dogs must have stolen the napkin to shred as it was nowhere to be found with the fourth skein. No biggie, I thought…nope. Upon skeining, I found another little tag. Dangit.
Hypothetically: you could cut the little tag, but then the ply could work loose and form a loop, or worse an end waving out there like a frayed little piece o’ spinner’s shame. You could knit it just as is, and hide it to the back of the work and hope it doesn’t flex to the front, but really…you should cut the yarn on either side, treating it like a knot in the yarn.
Ugh, I hate ends.
So, here’s the skein breakdown (not interesting to anyone but me, but since I’m always losing these scraps of paper I write stuff down on…) 168 yards/2.4 oz, 176 yards/2.5 oz, 190 yards/2.7 oz, and 230 yards/3.2 oz. So that’s 10.8 oz and 764 yards at 9-11 wraps per inch.
I have two bobbins left, one with .6 oz, and another with 1.9 oz. So, plenty of yarn for another skein, but I have to attempt winding .6 or so of the second bobbin into a separate ball for makin’ the 3ply. Sigh. Dork.
So…I thought I had 14 oz of this stuff…I wonder where the other .7 went? I guess I pulled out more disorganised portions than I realised. I’ll probably find a little bit of it somewhere…oh wait, I remember where the .7 is. A sample two ply I made way back when. Never mind me…talking/thinking/typing aloud.
Anyway, even if I do manage to use all of that leftover 2.5 oz and end up with another 176 yards, that leaves me at 940 yards…cutting it a bit fine, even for a worsted gauge st st V-neck sweater of snug fit for me, I think. Anyway, that’s counting yardage before it’s made. It may end up a manly matching hat, mittens and scarf set. Ooh la la.
I guess the fiber key to this section of the post was 80s merino, straight up and the mixed half and half of tencel. Huh.
So let’s make that the marketing monday blurbo and get that over with eh? Yeah. You can click here to look at prices if you’d like to buy some to spin yourself (please note the new put up amounts including 5 oz! –1 oz to play with for sampling, 4 oz to do a little project with–) but they are undyed. In the new year, after we get back from the month long hiatus, I’ll have dyed fibers for sale.
Have you ever seen how big ten pounds of Kona Superwash is?
My downstairs neighbor asked me if I know how to crochet or knit and if I could teach her and I nearly snorted my brains right out the back of my head. I believe I said something like, “I’m not much of a hooker, but I rock the knitting house.”
Fershizzle, I’m all up on the knizzle.
Anyway, I’m going to try and get together with her sometime this week to spread the knitting virus.
Pomona/Angelina is doing awesome, and proving that her Mommy is a good one and she’s made a lot of progress with her. She’s been coming out for snuggles and hanging out in the living room of her own free will and snoozing on the couch.
Fast asleep:
The other night I had the television on and It’s a Wonderful Life started. I’ve never seen it before so I watched it (and marveled at the marketing, the commercials seemed very much geared toward women with catastrophic brain injuries [seriously, the desperate lameness of the yoplait commercial “dating a masseuse -shh!–good” makes me want to punch something. Same with diamond commercials.]) and really liked it…but I turned it off when he started being mean to his family. So I guess I still haven’t seen it. I’ll put it in my Netflix queue.
And WHOA. A few days ago I looked at the prices for going to and from D.F. (Mexico City) from/to San Diego and was irked to find them over a thousand dollars for the both of us, after taxes etc. So when I looked last night and could snag the roundtrip tix all told for $800, I did, although I was worried that this was the start of a drop and they’d go lower and I’d be “d’oh!”ed. I told Nick about this and he said, “Yeah, and now we won’t look at the prices anymore.” We both don’t have much of a stomach for fluctuating values.
But I did look.
And ¡jolín! Wow, I’m glad I bought those tickets, as the price has jumped right back up. The industry is a mystery. Is it exchange rate? Demand? Some sort of ridiculously complicated algorithm?
I am so excited abut this trip. I’m going to teach a beginning spinning class at our local library on the sixth, then -boom!- off on the seventh for 29 days of aventura pura…pues lo que espero. I wish I wasn’t going to miss TNNA, I wish I wasn’t going to miss a month in the “industry’s high season,” but…it’s Mexico. A country I love–I’ve been to more states in Mexico than I have here in the U.S.of A. And Guatemala and Belize. Whee!
If you were a cold sleeper going to a place with lows of 40-50ºF, do you think you’d try to get away with one of those polar fleece sleeping bags (like from L.L. Bean), or go with a real sleeping bag?
I really need to make a habit of posting every day. Instead, I seem to save things up and then it seems like a longwinded random post–or too much trouble to mention. Anyway, enough blogging about blogging.
My biggest piece of news:
(Apparently others do too, as Louet has sold out of all of them until their March shipment, and they’ll be raising prices in the new year, but if you preorder by December 30, you can still get it at the old price, at least with me.)
I love how wee it is and how small it packs and how effortlessly it treadles.
A while back, I bought a perfectly hideous paisley chair because it looked comfortable, was relatively inexpensive, and was shaped somewhat like the chair my Mom has that the dogs have staring contests with each other over. It’s become the chair where I sit and spin in the corner of the living room–when I have the Lendrum or the s17 set up in front of me and I want to get up, I have to pick up the wheel and move it to the side. Not really a big deal, but it is an obstacle, and the Victoria is small enough I can just step over it. Given how much I am up and down while spinning, this has been quite handy and it makes me feel like a giant, as the photo above shows. 
I was worried about the orifice height being low, but it has proven to not be an issue at all with its upward angle. If you are used to having your hands close to the orifice while spinning though, you’ll need to watch yourself.
I was all in a dither about what to spin, my first bobbin on my new baby. I decided to spin some superfine merino I dyed up over a year and a half ago. I’ve already sampled it using my Lendrum, way back when, and know it to be squishy-love-monkey-goodness-divinity.
All the things I’m thankful for–do you have a couple days to listen to my list? (Do I have a couple days to write it all down?)
Nick, the dogs, this life we have, this comfortable messy life in our comfortable messy home, my schedule which sometimes seems so full but is still so flexible, so much freedom.
My healthy Mom and her silly Crivvie, my grandmother is healthy and happy, my Dad is healthy and Daddish, and maybe my brother will read this and comment and let us know that he and Doog are happy and healthy too.
I love how much these goofy foster dogs make me laugh, but I will be thankful when they have gone to their forever homes.
I hope everyone had a safe and happy day, whether or not it’s an official day of giving thanks in your country.
(I love dealing with Canadian companies, because not only do they answer the phone on our holidays, but they sound darn adorable doin’ it, eh?)