Woolybuns

I Broke My Camera So You're Stuck With a Photoless Political Piece

I'm a middle of the road leaning liberal disenchanted democrat.  When I reached voting age mumble mumble years ago, I passionately embraced the opportunity to vote and am proud to say I've never missed an election.  Not even the local ones.  Not even the year I purposely left the state just prior to and during the actual election to participate in a pay my own way grass roots get out the vote in crucial Florida effort.  Yeah, the Bush-Kerry election.  Doing that got me in close up to a number of speeches and gatherings, and absolute up to the minute exit polls.  Initially, it was an exhilarating ride. I loved it.  But as it became clear that nasty Rove-ism was at work, it kind of broke my heart.  Or more accurately, my political spirit.  Eight years of stupid at the top has only convinced me our political system stopped working a long time ago.  Definitely time for a change.  Does that make me an Obama Mama?

No.  He doesn't excite me.  Young, enthusiastic and personable isn't enough.  Neither is a two-party system that leaves so many of us voting for someone we don't want in hopes we don't end up with someone we don't want even more. I'm one of those who passionately wanted to vote for Hillary.  And it had nothing to do with gender.  Really.  Sure, I'd love to vote for a woman.  But I don't base any of my decisions on simple gender identification issues, nor race.  There's too much at stake for that kind of simplicity.  I want a candidate who's first and foremost qualified.  I want someone there on a personal level, someone who can connect with the struggles most of us face.  Someone who turns that connection into a dog fight for me and you and our kids and what we as a country need.  Someone smart.  That I'm with stupid stuff got old well before curious george tried to make it fashionable.  Sure, Obama is smart.  But I don't get the sense of connection from him.

Voting for McCain is as unthinkable as not voting.  Back during that oh so disgusting swift boat crap, McCain shut up too fast.  Some kind of back door deal happened that I'm convinced got him this election's candidacy.  Which puts him squarely in the back pocket of those masters of mayhem and political poop that this country so desperately needs to shovel to the bottom of the manure pile.

So I will vote for Obama because I have no other choice.  That is one of the changes I want.  A change to the way we elect our leaders.  One of the good things that happened, albeit unsuccessfully for my chosen candidate, in the primary process is that for the first time ever, I felt like I had some say in the whole stinkin' process.  I got to vote in the primary before an acknowledged winner emerged.  For that one brief instant, I felt like I might matter.   Hillary makes me feel like that.  Obama does not.  McCain - well.  He's just four more of republican reliance on trickle down, which could be more accurately described as political piss on you.

Now, about McCain's choice of running mate.  Well.  I think Maureen Dowd pretty much spells it out.  As for the pundits crowing that this lightweight inexperienced ultra conservative gun-toting anti-abortion twit will draw in those of us who want to vote for Hillary simply because Palin is female - go f... ahem.  No.  The notion that I will vote for someone so ideologically removed from everything I believe in just because she is female is quite the insult.  How typical of the republican right.

When Limbo Doesn't Rock

All around the limbo clock
Jack be limbo, Jack be quick
Jack go unda limbo stick
All around the limbo clock
Hey, let's do the limbo rock

It's such a happy fun song.  Living in limbo, though - it sucks.  All around me, the people I care about are moving on with their lives, some of them happier than others, but still moving on.  I want to.  I want to plan my gardens, decorate my house, buy a freakin' dresser so I have someplace to put my clothes besides the top of an old kid's desk.  But there isn't much point to any of that when getting on with my life means selling the house and buying elsewhere.  I know where I want to go, and I have ideas on what I want to do.  But until this house is finished cosmetically (something that is in someone else's control - grrr) so I can put it on the market, here I sit.  Stuck in limbo.  Kind of like being strapped into Dr. D's instrument of torture.   Being a resourceful and generally optimistic sort, usually I deal quite well with it.   But sometimes, something or more likely some combination of things crops up and beats me down for a bit.  Fortunately, when limbo doesn't rock, fiber does.  In the midst of making felting batts, I took a bit of time to blend a roving for a friend, a variation on a couple of colorways I've played with before.  I did the first ounce yesterday and delivered it.  I'm quite pleased with the blend of colors, so last night I did up another two ounces.  Although I used the same combination of colors from the same dye lots, I'm not quite sure it came out just as the first ounce did (note to self: when experimenting with colors, keep a damn sample!), but if not, the three balls can be drafted together for consistency.  This colorway is definitely a do it again on a much bigger scale.  I guess I need to come up with a name for it.

Dr. D's Instrument of Torture

Normally, I love my chiropractor.  He's brilliant at his job, funny, supportive, encouraging, and once when he hurt me intensely with an adjustment to an injury (couldn't help it - I shrieked and cried), he offered his shoulder for me to punch if I wanted to.  I didn't.  It wasn't his fault I fell on some ice and wrenched my shoulder in one of those soft tissue injuries that takes forever to heal.  And that brief instant of sheer, total pain led to complete function by the end of the day.  Most of the time, though, the adjustments don't hurt.  And I feel so good after getting cracked.  Dr. D even shares healthy, tasty, and simple recipes.  I'd like to collaborate with him on a cookbook, his suggestions are so good.  But yesterday ... well.  I had a re-eval a couple days ago, and the x-rays and other shaman stick like stuff he voodoos his magic with show excellent progress in many areas.  Not so much, though, in my lower neck.  The curve that's supposed to be there is still vacationing somewhere on the moon, I think.  He announced we need to get more assertive in calling it back.   This hard foam doohickey is what he calls a Dakota Traction.  He taught me how to use it yesterday.  OUCH!  I'm supposed to strap my head into position so that it hangs freely (except for the whole strap compression thing) and leave myself in that impossible painful completely immobilized and helpless position and just hang there to coax my misaligned vertebra back into some semblance of normal curve.  OUCH! Yesterday, I lasted a whole minute.  I'm supposed to gradually increase that to 10 minutes, then start increasing the tension on that bungee cord for greater compression.  Did I mention OUCH!!!!  I trust this man completely, not something I do easily.  If he tells me to do it, I do it.  And I get better.  But he's pushing the envelope this time. 

 

Why There Aren't More Photos of the Pups

This is Chloe.  A split second before this, she struck a beautiful pose, facing me, head up, ears perked, eyes aimed away from the camera.  Showed off her adorable big blocky head to perfection.  I even had the camera ready, waiting for the great shot.  But what caused her to hit her mark pose wise, of course, was Daphne grabbing a chew toy.  And clicking the camera button prompted the sproing.   Deliberately posed shots - Daphne says ehh.   They are 5 months old now, and I'm guessing they are in the 50 to almost 60 pound range because I can still pick them up.  They are also in full puppy coat shed, as you can see from the little tumbleweeds floating along the floor.  Once in a great while, I do get an occasional shot that has both dogs, including their faces, and is focused.  But rarely do I get one that is also cute.   Chloe has finally gotten the hang of keeping her crate dry, but just can't resist the urge to greet other people and pets with a splash on my floor.  This is not submissive peeing because she is distinctly dominant.  I think she's establishing this is her house.  She doesn't do that when we meet people and pets out on a walk.  Just on my floor.  Daphne is not a dominant personality, fortunately, which makes her far more easy to train. Chloe, though, is constantly challenging me, not aggressively, just in that "I wanna be pack leader" mindset.  You know.  Whaddaya mean sit?  Hey, I want to be in the lead.  What's with this wait for it crap?  So they always have to sit when I put on their leads, sit before being allowed to leave the kitchen.  Sit before I open the door to outside.  Sit while I shut the door.  Sit before going up or down stairs.  Walk quietly and calmly on a slack lead.  We're making good progress.  I can take both of them for a walk at the same time.  We may do a lot of sudden turn arounds or sharp left hand turns right into Chloe's head a few times but she gets the idea and drops back.  But we also start every day, after a quick trip outside, with hugs n kisses.  I sit on the floor against the refrigerator and the pups pig pile on me, as much wiggle as slurp.  Then they both flop over onto their backs, Chloe on my left, Daphne on my right, bellies up, begging for some good belly rub time.  When the tea kettle whistles, they pile into each other for a while, then settle down for some good gnaw time while I get my morning cuppa.  It's a good routine.

Wednesday WIPing 8/27/08

Once again, not a single stitch of knitting this past week.  I've been too busy with carding the merino with angora.  Carding merino by itself would be much faster.  Yesterday, I worked with salmon, violet and cherry red.  I loved the blended version before I put angora in it, but the white angora pretty much diluted the effect. I still like it but next time I'll dye angora in the same colors.  I also did the same colors more as a side by side version, which shows the color more.  Yes, those are the same two combination of colors, just blended differently.  

Today, I worked with more pastel colors: pink, lilac and a soft mint green.  I love each of them individually with white angora.  I prefer this combination of colors blended more side by side than as fully mixed as this one is.  Of course, the photo doesn't pick up the soft pretty color, either.

Mostly, I'm having a ball playing with the big pile of colorful fibers.  It may be a while before I go back to knitting, so I'm not making any knitting goals this week.

Getting Batty

I've got about half a pound of one ounce batts done, using the same three colors.  The first few I did as side by side, distinct colors.  For the last few, I split the color into smaller divisions and repeated the sequence across the width. The photo to the right shows the smaller increments.  For felting batts, which these are, I think I prefer the smaller splits.  If I were making roving, however, I would go with the distinct color divisions.  I'd also blend the angora more fully.  I may take a bit of a break from making batts to felt one into a skinny scarf, just to see how it looks.  And then I think I'll card up a more brightly colored combination.

Anybody interested in learning to shear a bunny?  I just confirmed last night a bunny demo for Labor Day weekend, in the northern region of Connecticut.  It's part of a bigger farm type festival, so there will be other things to do, hear, and watch.  If you are interested, email me and I'll let you know specifics of when and where. 

No Such Thing As Too Many Fiber Guilds

A group of wonderful women from a fiber guild called Yankee Fiber Friends organize and host the fiber tent at the fair I went to over the weekend.  They put together 3 separate events, one for each day of the fair.  I had to skip the sheep to shawl event on Sunday because I stayed home to celebrate my daughter's birthday.  But Friday night and Saturday were gloriously fiber filled.  I know a few of these women from Nutmeg Spinning Guild, but most of them are new acquaintances.  Lucky me, YFF meets on a different day from both NSG and Second Sunday Fiber Artisans.  Funny thing - no matter what guild I check out, they are all about an hour or so from my house.  Good thing I like to drive. 

So what to do after a fiber filled weekend of play?  Dig out the colorful stuff and get to work.  (why, yes, that is my saddle stored on the back of the chair in the living room - you wanna make something of it??)  I measured out each of 3 colors, then carded each color with some angora.  Then I carded those batts together in strips to keep the colors separate but in one batt to make my first multicolor batt.  Only about a gazillion to go.

Time for a bit of left over birthday cake, don't you think?

Giddy Goofy Giggles, or How I Got Thrown Out of the Potato Hut at the Fair

 Sonata and I, all made up and friends again, headed out early afternoon.  The spinning bee didn't start until 6 pm but the fair is in the same area as Still River Fiber Mill so it just made sense to go there first and drop off some angora to go with the fleeces I bought at CTSWF a few months ago.  And the mill is just around the corner from the barn at which I used to board first Jazz, then CC.  And Jazz is still there so I had to go visit her, too.  She still reacts happily when she sees me, and that brings a big smile to my heart.   Then it was fair time.  I  had to hunt for the fiber tent because the map said it would be one place, but those directing where to put things actually put the fiber tent elsewhere.   Clearly they fail to  appreciate the  effort involved in lugging spinning wheel, chair, niddy noddy and fiber all over the crowded fairgrounds.   But the fun that followed made up for the extra effort.

The spinning bee had 3 different classes: longest yarn, finest yarn, and lumpy bumpies.   We spun for 15 minutes for the longest, 10 minutes each for the other two classes because 15 minutes is a lot of winding off to compare for prizes.  It's also long enough to get a group of grrls into a great good giggle fest, what with discussions of who's is longest and  look at all those lumpy bumpies.  So after the awards ceremony , we headed over to the potato hut for a hot potato.   The four of us each wanted sweet potatoes and that somehow confuseled the poor potato guy. We of course, still giddy from all that silliness, drove the man bonkers.  Because we each wanted something different  on them, including the first person who wanted a Mexican sweet potato, which the man had never heard of. He finally threw us out, with our potatoes, though, which of course made us laugh all the more. 

I took a blue for longest, a red for finest, and a white for lumpy bumpy.  It was such fun, I'm going back on Saturday.

Well, I Don't Know Why

But the wheel issue is - at least for the moment - resolved.  I adjusted her every way I could think of and nothing seemed to work.  Then I threatened her with disassembly, and fondled her feet to see what needed to come off.  And how.  Didn't like the looks of the situation so I tried spinning again.  She worked.  I don't get it but I'll take it.  I got the single done, then plied to clear a bobbin, since - you know - they were all filled and I need an empty one for the spinning bee.  And this is what I made.  It's blue faced leicester that I dyed as roving.
Colors in the photo aren't entirely accurate but I'm pleased with the yarn.  Especially because it's nice and soft and squishy.

Wheely Wheely Frustrating

Having 9 spinning wheels should mean I always have something to spin on, correct?  Yeah.  Not so much.  I'm planning to participate in a spinning bee Friday evening.  I need a travel wheel.   And sure enough, among those 9 spinning wheels I do have two travel wheels: Majacraft Rose and Kromski Sonata.  I love both of them.  Just not right now.  Neither one spins right at the moment.  Ok, ok, so it's really me I'm a bit annoyed with at the moment.  I'm not dumb, I should be able to figure this out.  One thing is clear:  Rose is not at fault.  She got that big WHOMP almost a year and a half ago.  I finally got the broken wood part replaced, and the  person who did that for me said the center bolt holding the wheel to the upright appeared to be off kilter and needed replacing.  He thought I'd be able to get a simple bolt locally but tonight when I took it apart (ok, so the daughter's BF had to do that part for me), it quickly became apparent the bolt is custom made for Rose.  Clearly, I cannot fix that overnight.  I did, however, contact my Majacraft dealer and requested the part, so that's progress, albeit a baby step.  That means I have to figure out what's making Sonata so cranky.  She won't take up the single.  I've tightened things, finessed the upright on the mother of all, adjusted the tension, oiled, and pretty much done everything else I can think of.  No improvement.  In the morning, I'll be calling New Voyager screaming asking for help.  Not sure what it is about my brain function that allows me to learn things like color genetics in angora rabbits so easily but adjusting a mechanical thing like a spinning wheel should prove pretty much hopeless.  I think I need to change that.  I need to learn how to maintain my own spinning wheels.  One thing is fact: it won't be a pretty process.  I think I should lay in a store of Really. Good. Chocolate.   Of course, I do recognize that if this is the biggest problem I've got, I'm in damn good shape.