Lessons shared are wonderful

Where'd I go to again? I went back to work from medical leave on the 15th to get cut from work on the 23'rd, and then broke my ankle in 3 places (avulsion fractures) on the 29th. I've been online but kinda meh about posting. I have pretty much been laid up since December 29 and my left ankle and hip are healing from the fall I took but it's a slow process.

I have become completely batty with cabin fever - so as I can balance a bit of weight on my ankle, Thursday is the usual spinning night, and there's a new fiber shop close by hosting their own spinning night. I had to go. Really. You know - the right leg needed the excercise and isn't broken anywhere - can't let the muscle's atrophy...

Their hours for the spin in? 6-7:30PM.

Yeah - that's much earlier than Tara, Wendy (sometimes) and I meet - and as Tara works out until 6:30 with a trainer, well she's not likely to meet there. I don't mind starting there and moving down the road to Starbucks afterward - which is what I did on Thursday this week.

So I have to say this group of women are just a pleasure to spend time with, and I had no idea that there were that many spinners locally...

Initially the plan was that they were meeting only once a month there - but when I mentioned that next week I'd be at Starbucks and anyone who wished was welcome to join me.

They then decided they want to meet weekly too, and will be doing it at the yarn shop. I will probably start there and at closing move down to Starbucks to get my Cappucino fix.

I hobbled in there late with my crutches and my HitchHiker spnning wheel, and introduced my self. These women a pleasure to spend time with. I recieved the highest praise that I have were gotten in a long time when I was spinning some Targhee Top from a woman in her seventies who was hand carding each lock of wool before spinning it.

She told me she was excited to meet me as she felt she had so much to learn from me. I of course was gobsmacked as she's got a beautiful wheel and hand cards/prepares the wool she uses one lock at a time and she spins beautifully - and I had thought she had years of experience on me as she'd been talking about doing demos... when I started mentioning that I'd potentially navajo ply it, she actually said I was so far advanced in skills from her. I was a lot surprised by that, and I told her I was just going on two years of spinning... and I didn't consider my self an expert at all - I was just fortunate to have a large stash of different fibers and a couple of wheels to play with it on. Her comment was "it isn't about age, or time spent - it's what you've done with that time." Hee hee - yep and this woman thinks she has nothing to teach me? Just think about the words she said. That's a life lesson shared right there.

Anyhow - the yarn above was from the fiber swap I was in this summer. It's the aforementioned Targhee and I hadn't realized how well I'd gotten along with my HitchHiker wheel until I saw just how consistent and not overspun those singles are. I'm very pleased with the quality of my work with it of late.

I will be skeining the Targhee in singles, washing it, thwacking the hell out of it and then I'll see if I need to put it through more by plying it. If I can I want to leave it as a single, as the colorway is just beautiful and the spin is consistent. Targhee is an amazing fiber, like Tunis it can be worn against the skin by any age and it's really a lovely springy fiber with a lot of memory and it's not a big one for pilling.

I have a lot of roving coming from the mill at the end of the month and I may leave it undyed when I spin it if the CPSIA doesn't make some major changes... or I can market as "While soft enough to be used for a Baby or child under 12, the CPSIA of 2008 does not allow me to sell this in any modified/processed form (as in acid dying) for child use."

Can I just say I hate that law? Can you just see the WAHM's that are going to have to start marketing their products in this way "It's a size 0 diaper for those adults who have incontinence problems with a 10 inch waist and a 14 inch rise (The measure between your bellybutton and spin around your crotch.)" Either way - by the end of this month I will have about 26 prewashed pounds of fiber I dropped off at the mill in August to pick up and go to work on. I'd say about a good third of that is Tunis.

I got out a little more today (thank god for large doses of Advil) when I picked up my four year old from Mamaws (she overnights on Thursday nights) and we did a little shopping. I leaned on to the cart for dear life, and she was my little helper where she could be. As we went through pretty much the last of the ice melt salt for our walk way with this last storm and we're supposed to get another six inches of snow tomorrow, we needed to get more ice melt and I didn't want to get a little bag. I found 50# of it at Ocean State Job Lot, and had help getting it in the cart, out the door, into the car, and of course out of the car by my wonderful husband.

Before I take my daughter to dance tomorrow morning I think I'll sprinkle some of the ice melt (calcium chloride) on the drive way. Based on a website I found tonight I think that 50# bag will last a long time for us. "For Calcium chloride, it usually takes only two to four ounces per square yard to effective undercut bonded ice and snow"

We picked up some snacks and juice while we were out as well. I still have a fairly well stocked pantry and I had just had enough being on my feet, so I called it a night and we grabbed fast food on the way home. Our driveway sucks and after offloading everything from the car I moved the car to park it where it won't be snow plowed in. I slid our hill into a tree. I don't think there is damage to the bumper, and my aforementioned wonderful husband helped me get it straightened out so I could eventually get the car up the hill the right way and into my parking spot. You can bet that the driveway gets the ice melter tomorrow. With another six inches of snow on the way? Yeah I think so....

I will be spinning more on the HitchHiker for a while I think - due to my left ankle being in the state it's in. I was told it will take about 6 weeks to heal as long as I take good care of it and for the most part I really have. I am looking forward to working with my Kiwi again one of these days though. The poor thing has been awfully abandoned of late.