No crafty stuff this past week,

though I did get the silk hankie single spun on the drop spindle - and it actually fit.  It is so very uneven that I will have to ply it though.  I was hoping to ply the Tiger Eye, and also the silk this weekend, but other stuff took up my time.  I almost forgot - I dug out the merino I'm going to spin for the Tour de Fleece and unbraided it and am letting it 'decompress'.  But that's it for crafty stuff.

We've been carshopping this week (and the past few weeks), and finally compromised on this:

 Buick Rainier

He wanted a truck, but I needed something I would feel comfortable driving in ice and snow - and a full-sized truck wouldn't be it considering I drive a Honda Fit daily (and we have a truck), and a compact truck wouldn't have enough room.  This is very comfortable (heated seats - nice!), and smooth-riding.  And it's AWD, so should be good in bad weather. :-)  I wish it got better mpg, but we will probably get better than advertised - I usually do.  I also wish it didn't have leather seats - I much prefer fabric - but you can't have everything.  I'll probably be taking it on a long trip next weekend so I'll get to play with all the fancy doo-dads.

Then today DH tells me I have blueberries to pick.  I planted those blueberry bushes when we first moved here 17 years ago, and at most I've gotten a couple of handfuls of berries so I pretty much have ignored them the past few years.  But this year appears to be different:

There are 3 more bushes (though they don't have as many berries on them) and many unripe berries left to pick, so I'm going to have a unusually large crop for me!

I'll probably cook most of them down in the crockpot to make a sort of blueberry spread - that way they will get put up without sitting around and spoiling.

I'm still here!

I haven't really had anything to show you, plus we've been having so many storms that our internet is often out anyway (gee thanks, HughesNet!).  There was one sunny day that I was able to sit out on the deck for a bit and watch the sparkles in the Tiger Eye go 'round and round. :-D  (Which of course is well nigh impossible to catch with a camera.)

I have about two hours' worth of spinning left on the Tiger Eye singles, and then I'll turn them into a 2-ply.  No idea what I'll do with the finished yarn, but it certainly pleases my inner magpie!


I did a spinning demo with a friend this weekend, and ended up taking several spindles though I'm not much of a drop spindler so I'm not the best for demoing spindling. :-)  After spinning on the Penguin all day, I decided to try out my little cotton spindle and do a silk hankie.  I don't know if it's the colors, or that it seems to be going pretty quickly, but I can't hardly put it down.  I'm well over half-done (it's really hard to tell how many layers I have left) and will probably be done tomorrow since it's Spin Club - I'll have both the Tiger Eye *and* the hankie ready to ply!

(It's a little darker than that, but once I again I had the *worst* time trying to get the colors right)

This will also be a two-ply, because I'm getting quite a variation in thickness on this. :-/

edited post to add:  I haven't forgotten about the great wheel, I just haven't had a chance to work on it lately.  Hopefully this weekend I'll get it up and running. :-D


I started another tomato plant (actually two) in the Topsy-Turvy planter this year - they are doing quite well so far!

And a parting shot of our apparently-brain-damaged female cardinal -

She keeps flying into the window, over and over again.  When she stops flying into this window, she flys into another one on the same side of the house.  I haven't seen a nest in the area so I don't know why she's hanging around, but I hope she's ok.