spinning, mentally and physically

Yarn and fiber stores should be totally off limits to me, sadly I find natural fibers irresistible.  This glorious 2 oz bit of silk and Merino blend came home with me.  I spun it with  my trusty little walnut hand spindle into

 this incredibly soft two ply yarn.

 Little Yoda cat felt the need to check it out, she was hoping to take a nap in it and was annoyed to be shooed away.

 The 160 yards of yarn became this small scarf.  It has a L shape with the smaller lace eyelet edge snuggling up to the neck and the point of the L becoming a drape,  interesting shape and fun little knit. 

I was happy with it and pleased with the yarn.

My sis and I spent the weekend in Salt Lake City.  We had a wonderful time, the weather was glorious and it could not have been any better.  As sick as she is, she runs circles around me.  Chronic fatigue and Fibromyalgia and a bum knee slows me down, I don't notice it as much in my normal life but trying to walk for miles and keep up with her really underlined how much I suck.  So I am trying to be more like her and get more done, like the energizer bunny she is, some people have a goal, "what would Jesus do"  for now on my goal is "what would Alaine do".


My mother used to tell me, " oh if you could only be like your sister"  and while growing up I tried to be like her, it did not work very well.  She is organized and classy and everything I am not.   I am disorganized, dysfunctional, totally poor white trash, oddly and intensely creative, chronically curious and in general, quite strange.  No wonder I drove my mother crazy.

 A snow lady sprang into being quite recently too.She is  made of paperclay, fabric and vintage music.  She is covered in vintage mica flakes for sparkle.  I like her, she is already spoken for, a friend wants her but I think I shall make more for my Etsy shop, she was fun to do.

October in the canyon, a day so bright and clear it nearly made the heart hurt with the glory of it all.  The dogs loved it too.  Can you see Tigger going into the water to retrieve his big girl Rogue?  It makes him nervous when she swims, he tries to pull her out. Very funny.

chicken toy

My house and yard is a complete disaster but I did finish my little wooden toy.  The birds bob their heads when the crank is turned.

 Yes my photograph does stink and no I don't really care.

 Not so sure I care about my messy house either, okay, yes I do but not enough to clean it.

My youngest son and I went to the Humane Society today, he was applying for a job there. 
Poor kid is desperate for a job but I am not sure that is the place for him.  It would be a constant torture. 
He is a tender soul and this is a high kill "shelter", yet the ones who do live and are adopted deserve to be cared for with tenderness, which he would do well. 
He is so kind to our little deformed chicken, her name is Scoliosis by the way, and she is particularly sweet and seems quite partial to him too.
There were several cats I could have easily taken home, though I hate inside cats ( we only have six) and several dogs especially a great bear of a dog who was so lovely I found him nearly irresistible, but we have five dogs already.  The two bunnies very nearly came home with us.  I am still thinking about them.  They could live quite happily in the hen house I'm sure.
Well right now I am going to go take my Ambien ( oh Ambien how I love thee) and clean the cat boxes.  It is so much easier to face cleaning them after Ambien and besides I forget I have done it and its always a nice surprise in the morning.
After the jaunt to the Humane Society, well I was not very happy and found little about it to be "humane" in fact I was hating people when we left.  Jacob and I talked a great deal about the general disability of people to see beyond themselves or to see the value of life.  So many animals are discarded like a week old newspaper simply because they become inconvenient, and they die, either fast or slow, they die.

The rabbits were dumped out by an irrigation dam and left to fend for themselves.  The largest black rabbit was a sweet cuddly creature, the smaller one was a little bitchy, perhaps....hmmmm. the question would be whether Tigger would want to bounce them or not.   Thinking.  I have wanted a bunny for a while now.  Thinking.  Just how much will that piss of Husbutt and do I care?

things and stuff

This is why we call Lynx, sink kitty.  She is ALWAYS right in my face and on my stuff or in the sink. 

 She helped me spin up some bouncy squishy Polypay wool, 200 yards of light warm 2 ply wool, and then she helped me spin 100 yards of 2 ply silk.  Of course I have no idea what to do with this now that I have it spun.

 Lynx then helped me start building a replica of an antique toy.  It will have a pair of chickens in the little cage area and a mechanism to make their heads bob.  The  original lived at my aunt and uncles house for as long as I remember.  The graphics on the front indicated it was from the last half of the nineteenth century, personally I was guessing, because of the clothing style on the children in the graphics, around 1880's.  My aunt had always said it was to be her son's when she had moved on.  He took it home with him this summer.  As long as I remember it was at Marge and George's house.  It was simple thing yet it was always intriguing.  For many years I "toyed" with the idea of replicating it.  Now it's time to do so, before I forget what it looked like.  If I can find my dremel I will carve the chickens, if not I will sculpt them out of a polymer clay.  It does not matter if it is perfectly accurate as long as it retains the look and feel of the original.

 When Lynx tired of supervising that particular project, she moved on to some wool.

Later we took a quick drive up the canyon.  At the girls camp, there were visitors.  There is plenty of browse, the doe seems awfully thin for as much food as is available. Perhaps she is still nursing the little guy, he seems plump and well fed.   This is supposed to be a light winter this year, I hope she makes it through.