Missing in Action

It's been a rough couple weeks. The cars have been sick, one right after the other. However, the outlook on all of them is for a complete cure. The new porch has been sick. The painters came and the idiots didn't bother to put a drop cloth on the new cement slab. They then attempted to wash the paint stains off with a power washer. We came home to find green paint stains still there and the finish on the new slab pitted and generally ruined. It has yet to be seen what the contractor will do about it. (The painters were sub-contracted.) We had been overjoyed with the quality of work up to this point.

Buddy has been quite suddenly and seriously sick. We thought we were going to lose him there for a few days. Several hundred dollars and numerous medications later he is doing better, at least for now.

I've been off work and recuperating from foot surgery. It's been good for the knitting but not so good for everything else. I hate not being able to walk and exercise; shoot, I hate not being able to get around the house and just do my chores. I did get some spinning in, though.

Last week Annie graduated from college. The weather was wonderful, if rather hot; we went out for Greek afterwards. Good to have a bright spot in the midst of a run of bad luck.



Knitting progress photos soon.

Practising

As I said last week, a new roving was selected to start spinning. I didn't want to go with my luxury fibers yet, the alpaca I got for Christmas, or the lovely fibers I got a few weeks back from Margene. I want to get some more experience before I leap in on those. So I went with 8 ounces of Ashland Bay roving; this is either merino or Columbia. I can't find the tag when I want it. It is extremely soft and drafts very easily. Needless to say, this is certainly outside of my color comfort zone. Lilac shades just are not me. There are also blues and pinky reds in this as well. But the softness of the wool is making up for any doubts about the color.

I am trying my best to 1) spin smoothly, and 2) spin finely. I'm trying to get something that will be no heavier than fingering weight, with the goal in mind of knitting a shawl with this, once it turns into a two-ply. It's going to take a good while to spin up all eight ounces.

I've joined up on a number of spinning groups on Ravelry. I've found that the learning possibilities are tremendous. It's like belonging to a massive spinning guild, with all kinds of experience to draw on. I've already had my spinning improve just from using tips I found there. Another great reason to be on Ravelry!



I try to do a few rows every day on the Express Lane sock, the second sock. It's coming along slowly but very steadily.

Then in the evening I work on the Maplewing shawl. I think I'm on Row 25 of the first section. On row 40 there is a decrease of about a hundred stitches, which should help the project to speed up. I really like the way the pattern is shaping up.

Lovely, lovely yarn!