The state of the world right now is at the least stressful as we watch a world bully attack civilians without regard to anyone but his own ego. You can’t ignore what is going on, can’t escape the barrage of disconcerting news.
All I can do is focus on more positive things. This weekend, we are enjoying two of our grandkids, spending the weekend with us so their Mom can have a weekend away with friends. They are 10 and 15 and both really great kiddos. We did the usual Saturday morning breakfast out, egg delivery, then took them by their house to pick up a couple of missed items, then off to do a couple of errands. After that, with no complaint, they shared our walk, a 2.7ish miles. This evening, we will prepare dinner together, using it to help granddaughter study fractions as she has a test on them on Tuesday, then we will take them out for ice cream, even though it is the middle of winter and cold out, but a request that was made in front of their Mom last night.
Also a distraction has been knitting bulky yarn hats this week. So far, 3 have been made and added to the shop.
And of course, spinning with my spindles. As I am going to be offering a class at the local rec center in spindle spinning this spring, I ordered a basic top whorl spindle to use for demo purposes. It came with a second smaller one that I can make available to a grandchild or to someone in the class that comes without one.
I need spring time so I can get out in the garden. The seed came today. The granddaughter that is here is the one I help with her garden, so I think we will spend some time working on her garden plan this weekend as well.
Tuesday morning in the drizzling rain, the recliner was unloaded at the dump. It was much easier to unload than to load, but it is gone and so is all the other trash we picked up while hoisting it up the bank and along the road.
The German Shepherd again has an infection and was due for heartworm test, Lyme test, and two vaccines. After the dump run, we loaded her into the car and headed to town for her appointment with the vet. Because we were early, she took our walk with us, the rain had quit. We only did 2 miles, but other than a couple startles, she did great. It has been a long time since we tried walking her on a leash in public, but she stayed right by my side for the most part and kept a slack leash, just like she was trained to do when she was young. We only passed one other dog and that pup didn’t seem interested in meeting, but she didn’t over react to it either. Her biggest fears are bikes and other wheeled riders, like skates, skateboards, or scooters, but there weren’t any out in the damp day.
Her vet visit was long and pricey and she came home with 21 days worth of antibiotics and a very expensive anaerobic culture sent to the Vet school for analysis. She has had an on again/off again infection all of her life. All we have been able to do in the past is put her on antibiotics until it calms down and wait for it to flare up again. Like the big guy, she is an old dog now, she will be 10 next month.
I finished knitting another hat, but can’t find the pom pom maker. This one is a mill spun yarn doubled to make another bulky hat. I’m really trying to use up the bits of left over yarns that occupy space around here. The bulky hats are quick and can be sold inexpensively. Another is on the needles, half hand spun and half mill spun yarn.
The caramel colored one is all mill spun superwash. The black and pink is a mix. The black is 75% acrylic/25% wool mill spun, the pink which really is more red is a variegated reds to black and is all handspun wool of unknown origin. Since I can’t find the pom pom maker and don’t want to cut them out of cardboard, I will attempt to purchase a new one at one of the local arts and crafts stores today, unless the old one miraculously reappears.
So you say, where did the title come from today? Well, in part because I am using up little bits of yarn to sell items cheaply, clearing out, and in part because I have reached a point in my life where things I don’t use or don’t love, don’t need to stay in the house to cause clutter. This winter has been a destash winter, many items sold or donated to clear out “stuff.” It is by no means done, but a work in progress, boxes of clothing, household items that just occupy space. Today, a spindle. A tiny little beauty of a spindle, gorgeous wood, made by my favorite spindle maker, but it just sits. It is too small for me to use comfortably and I hate for it to just sit unused. Jenkins spindles sell as soon as you list them or offer them to someone seeking one and that is the case here. It is packed up and labelled to be dropped off in town when we brave the current monsoons to go get supplies.
We went from springtime back to winter overnight. During the winter, I have been wearing an Eddie Bower down short hooded jacket that I used to use when we could still trust our aging bodies to ski. When worn with ski pants, it was fine, but with jeans or twills, my lower body gets chilled while walking, even if leggings or long johns are under my pants. Over the weekend, I saw a great sale at Eddie Bauer and purchased a mid thigh down coat and hope it arrives within the next day or so as it is again cold. There likely won’t be a walk today as it looks like the rain has set in for the entire day. This purchase of an item in, means the ski jacket will be donated and probably another hooded coat that gets little use, so item in, at least one item out. There is a donation pile of other clothing and household goods forming, but I need to find a box to hold it all. When the box is full, it goes to one of the thrift stores. There is still so much that might be someone else’s treasure that need to go in the box.
A windy warm walk yesterday, an inch of rain, high wind, and a 35 degree temperature drop overnight and it is still falling. Snow flurries while dealing with the chooks this morning.
Even the Thanksgiving cacti are confused.
Both of them are blooming and the Christmas cactus has buds.
Yesterday was repair day. There have been some issues in our bathroom for a while and it was time to replace and clean out, a great excuse to give that room a deep cleaning too. Plumbing doesn’t intimidate me like electricity, so taking a trap apart or replacing toilet parts is no issue. Hubby’s tub is a giant jacuzi style that is not jetted but spa sized. To clean it, I have to get in it which I don’t like to do with cleaner sprayed all over the inside. I read you can use dish soap and a broom, but I can’t imagine how you would rinse it all out. As for electricity, I gave up on the dining room light after a conversation with Son 1 who concluded we have a short in there somewhere, not a switch issue. It is off and the switch taped to prevent accidently switching it. Next time he visits, he will examine it, repair it if possible, or replace it with a new fan and light if not. In the meantime, we moved dinner time a bit earlier so we can see what is on our plates.
I finished plying and skeining the Christmas gift wool. It ended up 492 yards of 18 WPI yarn. I’m still trying to pick a pattern for it and toying with spinning a complementary color to use with it to make a generous wrap. It is a pretty, subtle gradient and very soft.
A few years ago, I knit a pattern that was popular at the time called “Free Your Fade,” using 5 distinct colors that you blend with alternate rows as you are ready to change colors. It is one of my favorite wraps, it is huge, can be worn as a shawl to cover shoulders or a generous neck wrap over a sweater or coat. With the gradient, I wouldn’t have to alternate rows except to change skeins if I can decide on the coordinate skein. It wouldn’t be quite as large, but still a nice size.
It is too overcast to capture the colors from gray on the left to wine on the right, but you can see it’s size.
It is pruning time. The fruit trees, the grape vine, and the rose all need pruning. Not today, it is too cold outside to want to work out there. It is still falling toward a 25f night, the forecast says it feels like 21f now. By Sunday it warms back up into the 50s for a few days, maybe I can get it done then before the 4 days of rain expected next week. I’m not sure what I will do with all the clippings though as we have a burn ban in place. They can be hauled to one of the areas we can’t mow or hay and leave them to become part of the floor of the woods at some point. There are two small trees that have fallen into the haying areas, the tractor can pull them out of the way.
Yesterday, on our way home from the hardware and our walk, we drove on along the upper edge of our property on the road. We hadn’t done that for a long while and some jerk has dumped a huge upholstered chair and a broken cooler into our property down the hill almost into the creek. I think we can put a tow strap around it and haul it back up to the road using the tractor, but then I don’t know what we will do with it. Neither of our cars can pull the trailer any longer. We may have to enlist daughter’s help to pull the trailer to the dump. People can be such inconsiderate slobs.
