New Spindles, New Haircut

    Arriving Friday was a box on the porch.  I've been in contact with Lily Spindles and it was some trepidation that I ordered these.

Why some trepidation?  I'd never seen them in person.  It was odd to me that one on top in the picture looks bigger, but in reality was lighter than the smaller one.  I twirled them both on the tags and they felt really nice and balanced.  I couldn't resist trying the lighter one last night on the fiber they are both lying upon.   And then I could hardly stop. Was it ever wonderful to feel and watch the spindle working.  Looking at it in the light of day, the darker wood is getting a really nice patina from the grease in the fibers and from my hands.  Very nice.  I think I've spun over an ounce since last night.  For us Americans that is about 28 grams, if you want to know.  The spin lasts for such a nice long time.  The balance is really nice, which helps it to spin for a long time and it is just about right for the fine yarn I'm wanting to spin.  I would recommend them as a good beginner spindle and they very beautiful.  The thing I like best is looking at the different woods in the layers of the whorl (the circular disc on the spindle,) and seeing what they are.  I like them a lot.  Lily Spindles are on the web. 

This week we had a day of kitty trimming and grooming.  My sweetie wanted to see her without her big neck ruff.  Oooooooohhhhhh, Big mistake!  I think she is just odd looking.  I mean really odd looking.  And she had a bath!  Boy she was very good, but she hated it.  And she spent over an hour after she got home licking everything; trying her best to get it, meaning herself, smelling like an animal and not a flower.  

We are in agreement that we let her hair grow out into a nice ruff again.  She doesn't even look like herself!  I think she knows it too.  

And then it wasn't enough that I started a new pair of stocking on my needles -- I was just tired of doing big bad lace so I'm not doing it for now, which may not last long.  Here are the stockings.

Think those are bright enough!  Yeah me too.  But then on Ravelry.com, which is a web sight for knitters and spinners, they also have a fingerless mitts group and I like those.  I haven't even gotten the cuffs done yet so no picture, but whew am I going to be knitting a bunch.  In fact I need to get back to that.  

Who Is In Charge

      We all want to live abundantly.  To you does it mean being rich, famous, well thought of, popular, thin, have breast augmentation, etc.?  Sounds like a good thing, right?  Not necessarily.  That means whatever goes wrong has happened because you are in charge.  It means if you lose your job, your house, your company, your health it is your fault.  After all those things, Wealth, Fame, Popularity are all human based.  So if they are gone it means your identity is also gone, because you can't live abundantly without them.  Yep, that is a lot to think about.

     You have been taught from the beginning that everything you want you can have.  What's more there is no reason to wait.  Your dreams are about all that matters, well, that and fulfilling them.  Everything else is secondary to what you want.  All you have to do is start by loving yourself above all else.  It isn't as though that needs to be taught.  We do it naturally!  But I have lousy self-esteem you might say.  Perhaps you do because it seems to me that self-esteem comes from learning to handle adversity successfully, not in being told you are wonderful.  Again that is a lot to think about.  Let me lay another one on top of that.  You are the one who make a decision of being in love or not.  Yes, you heard me right.  Love is a decision!

     It is a lot to think about.  Would that mean my strength comes not from myself, that when I'm right it was probably an accident?  Does what I think, when I'm thinking how lousy my self-esteem is, mean I'm wrong?

     Do you recognize that weakness, as the world sees it, may well be strength that could save the whole world.  Do you think of love as a weak emotion and not as a final decision.  Our divorce rate seems to indicate that is what the world thinks.  In loving a person and hating the sin am I strong?  There is a book we have that everyone in the world makes fun of that says it is so.  This book tells you who is in charge and what will ultimately happen in the world.  Worried about the election.  Don't be.  The book tells us who is in charge.  You might want to read that book.  Think about it.  

New Book -- New Week!

     Another week has gone by, I think.  Where did it go?  In everyday activities I believe.  New sink faucet put in, new garbage disposal put in, exercise, meeting with people and yarn making.  The best however is the new book on yarn which is below.

   
     Lots and lots of really neat yarn type factoids that I just love learning about.  Probably most people would be bored to death, but not me.  I love it.  I didn't know for example that at one time Alpacas were almost extinct.  I'm afraid the same may happen to Musk Ox.  I know, how many people worry about that one?  Almost none.  And yet their hair is the warmest thing known on the planet.

    Got to talk to an old friend from Alaska this week.  Their Christmas letter arrived a bit later than usual and rather mangled, it may have been in the other side of the couple's truck for ages, or just one of those strange mail things.  It was fun to chat with her.  How much Alaska has changed in the intervening years and of course Fairbanks has tripled in size.

     Have lots of new yarn made also.  I need to get a photo up so you can see her and took some new shots of Miss Elly, aka as Cinder-elly, precious and baby kitty girl.  She is a 16 or more pound cat.  

     Not best pleased with me here.  Just tolerating having her photo taken and wants a drink from the bathroom sink if you'd wait on me as you should.  Here is one of her outside thinking about eating grass.

    It is early in the spring and the snows from October have finally melted except the huge piles in the parking lots of commercial and business places, but too early for grass to grow much and it is mostly in the brown dormant state.  Also don't you love the fluffy end hair on her tail.  Makes me chuckle all the time.

I decided to take a quick photo of the yarn ball I've made so far.  This is nearly an ounce of yarn ready to be plied (twisted together the other direction to be a 2-ply yarn) together for something to be knit from.

     The fiber is a batt made from wool, a nice merino wool, a bit of alpaca, some silk and another wonderful component which I've forgotten, but it spins beautifully and is with some of the batts (on the far left side) I'd ordered and the spindle is one of my new ones I'd ordered.

     I added pages to my Artist's Journal, but this post is long enough and that will be for another time.  suffice to say I'm having a ball with both things.

     Did you remember to jump ahead today?

The Week That Was

     Wow!  Has it been a week already?  Well, yes and I don't know really where the time went.  This last week as seen the install of a new garbage disposal, with the help of a plumber because I was worried about breaking the porcelain on my 'new' sink which I realized was about 15 to 17 years old, so it can no longer be classified as new.  I'm not sure where that time went either, but I'm going to enjoy it while I can.

    We've been so warm I wore my work out shorts all day yesterday because I just couldn't have the time to get them off until late.  Then this morning it was cold and damp and misty with a few desultory snow showers now and then.  Got my clean up car all dirty again, but it was clean for a couple of days.

     Today was an art day and tomorrow is a running to and fro sort of day.  I'll be home mostly, but have to do some errands sometime and hope to spin some.  Nothing really to report except the new saying I'm sort of living by, right now which is:  You can choose your sin, but consequences will be tailor made for you to realize that there is no choice in consequences.  I love that right now.  So very true.  Think how much better people would have it if they choose their sin carefully.

     I've gotten a lot of spinning done, and am getting better at making yarn closer to what I want.  Practice does improve a lot.  Now, I get comfortable with that and off I go to learn more of how to do it faster.  Again a lot of practice to do that.  I've taken a lot of photos and may actually post them soon.