Is fall staying?

Not sure if Autumn is here to stay, but I am so happy it's cool enough to sit outside and spin and there are no mosquitos! Now the only danger is neighbors burning trash (and plastic) while I'm trying to enjoy myself. Four hours of trash/plastic burning yesterday - right behind my house! I had to close all the windows (aaarrrhh!). Seriously, I don't get it. All right, the leaf burning I don't really get either, but at least they're leaves! We have a dump site five miles away if you're too cheap to pay for a service to come pick up your trash (and I am too cheap for that! I go to the dump once every 2-3 weeks). Saving garbage to burn, especially when the noxious fumes and black smoke are filling the air is bizarre to me.

All right, on to fiber! Chicky's super cute gauntlets are finished



and now I'm back to spinning. The two skeins of blue three ply are done!



This is another roving that's been waiting for attention (for years!) and finally got it.



That roving is also two skeins of three ply and they are drying. Next up, another blue roving, this time with some greens. This is so much fun I'm tempted to either dye some more fiber to spin or pull the rest from my Etsy shop!

Wait till you see what knitting I finish this weekend.

Rainy day

Today is a "bursting" day in exercise land. I'm up from 30 seconds of running full tilt and then walking for a minute to 45 seconds or running. Feels pretty good! It might be difficult to stay motivated today with the rain. I used to chronically suffer from shin splints (even fast walking) and I haven't for the past six weeks. This week? Shin splints. Do I think it's running for 15 seconds longer each burst? Nope. I've been at the spinning wheel quite a bit this past week. I used to have a single treadle wheel which seemed worse to me, because only one shin hurt like blazes. Now I have a double treadle and both shins hurt evenly. You could argue I must be doing it wrong somehow, and I might be inclined to agree with you. I just don't know how else to make the pedals go up and down other than by pushing them with my feet!

All the spinning is for a good reason: 2011 Autumn Yarn Crawl is fast approaching! I'm going to be pedaling my fiber wares at Cozy in Durham on October 9. A bag of lovelies will be raffled (the tickets are free) and what could be better than being surrounded by fiber and other people who appreciate it as much as you do?

I'll give you a sneak peek at what I'm taking along. Everything in the Etsy shop will be going as well as some freshly dyed merino/silk fingering, worsted, and DK weight yarn. This is more of a yarn event than a roving, but I'll be taking a little, just in case.

Here's a peek at some of the new stuff!



Who knows what else I can get done until Oct. 9? Hopefully, a lot!

Fundraising

FUNDRAISING TIME! All parents love this time of year. Your child arrives home from school (it's one of the few times you are willingly handed something out of a backpack) and gives you "the packet" with either the ridiculous rewards sheet or the words, "I want...". The next sentence at my house is: it's due tomorrow. Really?

Me: When did you get the packet?
Peep: Today.
Me: And they said, "This is due tomorrow."
Peep: Yea, and we need to give them seven address or orders. I want these two magazines. It's for a good cause - a weight room so kids can exercise.

(I'm all about kids exercising, but they need to build time into the day for them to do it. And did you know kids only take PE in middle school for half the year? When did gym everyday disappear?)

Last week one of the bigger peeps brought me a flyer for mums for an FFA fundraiser. Also due the next day. I'm wondering what else will come home in the next few weeks.

Rather than giving these outside companies money, I'd like to write donation cheque to the school so they get all the money they collect. The peeps, products of consumerism, are big fans of the cheap, crappy incentives. They love to hear me on my soapbox about it at dinner too. The eye rolls and groans mean they're listening, right?

Currently the peep below is hitting up her father for magazines. More power to him!

Black Ethel Cash's Stash is back!

After a long spinning and dyeing of wool hiatus I'm re-opening the Etsy wool shop! Below you can see the basket of yarns of listed already. Roving will be going up soon - after a photo shoot. Check it out!

Summer is almost over

Not really, but for peep purposes.  They've been at school for a whole week now and seem to have adjusted well.  I'm still adjusting to late game nights - they boys got back from a game at 9:30 on Wednesday and then Morgan had quite a bit of homework to do.  I like to be in bed around 9 pm and read for a while.  If I stay up too late, I still get up early and feel like I have a hangover.

The boys won the JV game on Wednesday.  There had been some talk of Bowen playing Varsity, which we were excited they wanted him, but weren't into the idea of him spending so much time on the bench. I'm glad he's staying where he's at, he plays the whole game (some time of defense and some on offense) and Morgan is a steady defender the whole game.

This week, I branched out from my return to knitting and ended up getting my rigid heddle loom off my beloved wardrobe (it was the only place big enough to hold the loom) and started back weaving the thing that made me put it away in the first place!  It was hideous looking.  I decided to use up the ugly yarn on the stick just so I could work on my edges.  When I ran out I looked in The Most Beautiful Yarn Storage and found some Fiesta Boomerang yarn that I'd tried on a couple other projects and hadn't liked.  Sometimes a variegated yarn doesn't work for me at all. In this application - it was perfect! The colors worked well with the black and red warp, the squishiness of the  yarn has also been lovely once off the loom.

Now I'm planning on starting some holiday gifts in the next few days.  With cooler temperatures it is perfect fiber weather!