Zafu

Hi Cindy,

A zafu is a cushion used in meditation. In the picture it is the round one in the center. The large square one is a zabuton. I bought DH the zafu for our anniversary here but the zabuton he bought here as part of a starter package. He actually has two zafus This one is filled with kapok, a cotton-like fiber that is actually hydrofillic, and the other is filled with buckwheat hulls. The plan is to fill the new one with kapok if we can find a source for it that isn't too expensive.

Here is the initial stages of sewing together the new one. I used 2 felted sweaters, one in brown-gray-blue stripes and the other with black and gray blocks of color. It is a little hard to distinguish the two colors in this picture but the striped portion is the side and the blocks of color are the top and bottom. I used the width of the sweater as the main body of the side but then had a slit covered on the inside and outside by a 8 inch wide piece cut from the sleeves. I'll probably end up stitching the internal one down on one side so it doesn't pook out as much.

Here is the finished piece stuffed temporarily with recycled fiber fill from an old pillow. I ended up hand sewing it all together because I wasn't sure if my old Kenmore would go through all the layers. While most of it was only 2 layers thick, it was 4 layers over the slit with a little section of 5 layers in the very middle. I have one small (1/2 inch) section of the 4 layers where I missed the outermost layer. I'll have to tack that down when I finish it up. Right now it is a bit tall but it will squish down when it is filled and sat upon. I'm pretty happy with it at this stage although I may press the seams out before we do the final filling. and I may add some kind of internal tie under the carry strap on the side. It gets the stamp of approval from the spinnin' kitten but she hasn't attacked it like I thought she would.

Take care, A

ps: Think good thoughts tomorrow (Thursday) as DH has an interview.

What I did on my summer vacation

Hi Alene, here's some of our local wildlife on my garden buddha statue.

Well, summer isn't over yet but it is zooming along in a very surprising way. Lately I've been: trying to catch up in the weed patch (it's been raining a LOT after 2 months with almost none), doing laundry, working on the quilt and sweater here & there, thinking a lot about spinning, cooking, getting the kids up earlier in prep for school, assorted chores, taking both kids to swimming lessons, going to work, reading HP (I'm on 4 now), trying to persuade DD not to change clothes so many times in one day, potty training, and doing more laundry.

Didn't get much of a chance to blog on our WA vacation but we had a good time. Most of it was visiting relatives and doing a few tourist things (Seattle Aquarium, Cheese Days festival). I love visiting Washington and seeing the mountains and Puget Sound even if only from a distance.

More soon and crafty, Cindy

When good pets go bad

Hi Cindy,

As promised the other day, here are a few photos of the indignities we put our cats through. Fortunately they didn't live up to the title of the post although I'm sure they would have obliged if they were a little bigger.

We found this lion hat the other day while shopping at Target. It was just too cute not to subject the resident felines to. As you can see Teddy was pretty p.o.'d about it. He says he's too old to be treated this way.

Margi was also pretty peeved about the situation.

Abigail wouldn't even hold still long enough to get the hat near her. She is definitely wilder than the other two and is fully armed to lash out. Ted and Margi are defenseless on the front side. After the hat came off the cats had to express their displeasure by tossing it around and then laying on it. DH also had to put it on me (didn't fit, go figure) but that picture is hidden forever.

My friend from work, LD, has an iguana that she's had for about 13 years. She got while Que she was in college and he was a small thing. She even moved him here when she got transferred out to AZ while working in consulting. One of the bedrooms in her house is dedicated to Que and was even designed to be easy to clean. After 13 years he's grown to over 3 feet in length. She used to take him along when she did field work (he'd stay in the motel bathroom) but now she does GIS modelling so she doesn't have to travel any more for work.

Early Saturday morning she was cleaning his room before her new boyfriend came over and she decided to give Que a bath too. While she was bathing him in the bath tub he fouled the water and she released the drain to clean it out. She put a towel over his head and while she was reaching to turn the shower on he lunged and clamped on to her left hand. This is the first serious bite she's ever had from him. She promptly put him back in his room and tried to clean up her hand. She ended up calling 911 and going to the emergency room to have it taken care of. She had to assure the paramedics that he was secured before they would even enter her house.

Que got two of her fingers; on the center one he went through all the layers of skin and even chipped the bone. On her thumb it just broke the skin. LD is glad that he got the thumb too, otherwise she's afraid he would have bitten off the finger totally. The ER wouldn't stitch her fingers up until she's done with the massive vial of antibiotics they gave her. I guess they want to be able to observe animal bites to make sure that they don't become infected. She got a referral to a hand surgeon. When I saw her this morning she had a splint on the middle finger and her whole left hand wrapped in bandage. It's a good thing that a lot of the work she does is using the mouse and minimal typing. The picture is not Que but he is about that size and color. DH asked if she's ready to get rid of him since he hurt her so badly. I doubt that she will since she's had him for so long unless she can find a herpetological group that will take him.

This is a good lesson, never startle a lizard that's big enough to get it's mouth around one of your fingers, you may loose it.

Take Care, A

Next blog topic: zafu construction

Too much to write about

Hi Cindy!

Today has been a busy day and I've got too much to write about so I'll probably babble on for quite a while.

I'm going to start with a FO. After about 5 weeks knitting on the second sock I finally finished kitchnering the toe this afternoon. The bottom one is the first one I finished back before the 4th and it has been lonely ever since. It hung out in my sock drawer but I think the pairs taunted it since it was a single. Now it is happily united with its match. As you can see they aren't exactly identical. The color on the leg of the first one is more vibrant than the rest of the yarn. I still have a ball about an inch and a half in diameter left, maybe booties for L's baby.

The "Bill the Lizard" roving duo I bought from the Lime and Violet store arrived on the door step today. It is awesome and I can't wait to start on it. The fiber fiend had to check it out right away. She was asleep under the couch cover when I took the first picture of it. It didn't take long for her to wake up and check it out, i.e. try to eat it. She is nothing if not predictable. It seemed to pass her taste test. She was pretty bummed when I took it away to hide it in the fiber safe (closet).





I have a confession to make. DH and I have gotten really bad at eating veggies. Since we work so close to each other we eat lunch together almost every day. And that means eating out at one of the restaurants around us. Because we tend to eat large lunches we typically don't have regular sit-down dinners at home in the evening, just snack on something when we get home. One of the first thing lost in that was the fruits and veggies.

Two weeks ago there was an article in the local paper about a food co-op that started up last fall. It isn't a big co-op like we used to have with Gentle Strength but instead is a food buying collective. It runs on a two week cycle with pickup every other Saturday. It is about half fruits and half veggies. Every month or so they have other things you can order; for next time it was teas and spices. It is a week by week thing, you don't have to commit to a long contract like some of the other veggie co-ops around. M&B belong to one that does organics but they're locked into every week for several months. This one is not organics, they buy from a regular fruit and veggie supplier for the local grocery stores. I signed up for this week's distribution without telling DH. I knew he wouldn't be too keen on it if I talked about it ahead of time. I knew that at least for myself I needed to add some fresh veggies.

DH debated going with me this morning to pick it up but I think he's glad he did. He was impressed with the haul and is even thinking about volunteering next time to help divide up the items beforehand. We took our cooler chest and it was packed. You got two round laundry baskets of stuff, one of veggies and one of fruits. We will be hard pressed to eat everything by the time the next one rolls around. We ended up with a bunch of spinach, two heads of romaine, two heads of cauliflower, a cabbage, broccoli, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers and snow peas. For the fruits we got a cantaloupe, peaches, plums, apples, strawberries, pears and grapes. As a "luxury" item they included two lychee. I've had them canned before but a fresh one is sublime. I'm saving the other one for another day. On our way home we stopped at the hispanic market and got cilantro, jalapenos and a couple of habenero peppers to make pico de gallo. It is pretty spicy but very yummy. We've also already had stir-fry with some of the items and I've eaten a couple of pieces of fruit. We are definitely happy about it and will do it again. DH plans on taking any extras to the zendo if they want it and he's also planning that one Saturday when we do it we'll then head up to his folks to share it with them. He told them about it this afternoon and his mom was very interested.

Guess I've run on long enough. I've got a couple of other things to babble about but I'll leave that till tomorrow. Hint: think how we might have traumatized our felines this week.

Take care, A

Thanks!

What a pretty post for my bday! Gorgeous fish. A big thanks for my birthday package. The silk roving is amazing!! The books will be fun too after I finish the HP pile metaphorically on my bedside table (I'm up to Prisoner of Azkaban now). I also really liked your clever homemade swatch card!

I haven't heard any podcasts yet; likely that'll be when the kids are a bit older. I did enjoy an Interweave Press interview with Stephanie P-McP. about spinning. Is your second spinning class over? What sorts of things did you learn? Cindy

p.s. I added 2 blogs to our list: one with loads of spinning info and a great knitting one (highly recommended by Ms H, Fearless Yarn Leader at work).

Happy Birthday Cindy!

Just a short note to wish you the happiest of days.

Just in case you missed it, here's what Wikipedia has to say about your day.

Your package got mailed out yesterday afternoon. Only the item in the bag is for your birthday, the two books were coming your way anyways and just hitched a ride. You should get the box tomorrow (it's the same box you sent this way in June--recycling is fun). (The fish are from the Japanese Gardens in downtown Phoenix, about 2 miles from where I work.)

Once again Happy Birthday!

My smoky kitchen

Hi Alene! About 10-15 years ago, I decided I didn't want to become a weather curmudgeon as is easy to do in this climate. I've always loved fall but had gotten to complaining about spring (too mucky) and summer (too humid). I'd started noticing other people complaining a lot and thinking they were never happy about the weather. Gradually I saw some of that in myself and decided it was silly: no place was perfect and what a waste of my energy being unhappy about it. Once I looked for the good in each season, I was richly rewarded. I still find weather fascinating and love to talk about it but now I love the rhythm and events of the seasons even more. No wonder I embraced CSA and gardening and food preserving so much. When I saw the articles on solar dyeing in Knitty antd Spin-Off, I thought 'what a great way to celebrate the long northern days.'

After studying this article in Knitty, I decided to use up some of my leftover tie-dye on the Wensleydale I recently finished spinning. Since I got a late start that day, I figured a teapot of hot water was needed to get the dyepot going. So I put on the teakettle and headed downstairs to wind the yarn off my wheel and collect my other supplies (old canning kettle, dye, etc.). By the time I came back up with DS on my heels my kitchen was filled with smoke! I had turned on the wrong burner. Then there was several frantic and comic minutes while I took the very hot smoking dirty frying pan outside, we were serenaded by both smoke alarms, and the kids kept saying things like "it's hard to see across the living room" and I kept saying "there isn't any smoke downstairs, can't you play down there for a while??" I turned off the AC, opened windows, turned on every fan we have, and pretended it wasn't 95 degrees out. The irony that I would have been saving electricity by using solar heat if I hadn't tried to heat up the water an the stove and ended up running all sorts of fans and later needing the AC to run like crazy to catch up? Nope, not lost on me although it almost made me snicker as I was running around throwing windows open and apologizing to Farli for the chaos.

Eventually I got microwaved hot water in the pot in the sun, yarn & vinegar in and dye put on. The pic above shows that stage. It came out a pretty blue and purple but it must not have heated enough because the dye washed off a little as I started rinsing it the next day. So I put it on the stove top and overdyed it purple (still from the tie-dye leftovers).

I decided that I am definitely going to try solar dyeing again but with a homemade reflector (cardboard & foil) and maybe around the summer solstice when I have the longest hours of daylight.


I bet with your sunshine you could do it almost any time of year! Cindy

Camping

Hi Cindy,

Hope you had a good weekend. Our camping trip had mixed success. We only went for one night but it was great to get out of town to the cool green for a while. I wasn't really as grumpy as the picture makes me look. DH had just gotten out the camera and I asked him not to take my picture but he ignored my request. At least you can see how green it is up there. In the background is M. He did all my training when I started at ADWR last year. His wife B is a PhD student in Ecology at ASU. She is studying bats and their role in nature. She brought along a bat detector and had it sitting out while we sat around the campfire. There was one bat that kept circling, snacking on all the bugs drawn by the light.

In addition to us, there were A and his daughter, S and her kids and K with her husband, son and sister. Oh, and there were 4 dogs too. In fact DH and I were the only ones without a dog. M&B's dog Kiera is pretty sweet and S's Sprocket is a nice little dog. A's Madison was okay but K's Callie was big and loud. There was also a problem with keeping the dogs from getting into territorial disputes. Nothing serious but it was annoying. One of the conflicts actually knocked little T (K's DS) down as they rolled into him.

The other annoyance was the music. Typically when we camp out we don't take any boombox along. It's nice to just have the quiet of the woods. A kept his truck doors open all evening with the iPod blaring out. For a while it was okay, a nice mix of music. But after a while K's DH had to start mucking about with the music choices and hit the country. DH and I have minimal tolerance for country music and I got the impression that B did too. Soon the four of us were headed off to our tents. S had already headed off with her kids. The other four adults stayed up for another 2 hours talking and playing music. I'm not sure how the kids slept with all the noise but their tents were farther away.

DH and I are starting to feel a little age and didn't sleep very well, even after the music was off and the fire out. Our thin backpack mattresses didn't do much to cushion the ground even though it was wet and soft. We are talking about getting a foam mattress that we can just store in the truck and take camping when ever. Or have available whenever we need extra sleeping space for guests.

We had already decided to head home on Saturday so that we could get stuff done. When we got up we were both so tired that we slowly packed up and the left out around 10 am. M&B left about the same time as B flew out Sunday for a conference. S and her kids stayed long enough to go on a hike but were headed back to town that evening. The rest stayed through Sunday.

The area where we camped was okay but very peopleated. We had to go much farther in than A had planned. Everyone else had trailers and ATV's. DH called it a Redneck Wonderland after the Midnight Oil release. I guess the country music and the dogs fit right in.

Okay, enough about camping. I splurged Sunday night and bought a bit of painted roving from the Lime and Violet store. The color that I bought was called "Bill the Lizard", painted in green and purple. I didn't snag the picture of it from the site and they only had one available so the picture disappeared after I purchased it. It shipped out yesterday afternoon so I should have it by the end of the week. Look forward to pictures when it comes.

Do you ever listen to podcasts? You can save them on your hard drive even if you don't have an mp3 player. My favorite two are Cast-On by Brenda Dayne and Lime and Violet. Brenda is a transplant from Portland to Wales (yes, the country, not the town where our HS was). She recently started her fifth series of shows. Each series has a theme which she maps out and discusses. One was on the muses, especially how they relate to knitting. Another was on knitting and places. Her voice is very soothing and she has a variety of guest read other peoples (or their own) essays related to the topic. She usually runs 40-50 minutes in length. I've been listening to her for over a year and a half.

Lime and Violet broadcast from the Omaha area. They have been podcasting for just over a year. They are more chatty and don't produce in a set series, just put out a podcast every week or two. Whereas Brenda is more informative Lime and Violet are more like a very informal stitch and bitch that goes on for an hour or more. That's not to say that they don't have specific things they talk about. They have regular segments on what's on their needles, knitting news and yarn porn. They also talk about yarn shops and suppliers and other fiber related things. One of their very early episodes last year was a trip to Estes Park Wool Market. A major theme of their entire podcast is how hard it is to look at all the beautiful yarn and fibers available and not have a credit card go into convulsions.

Guess I'd better close this and get to work. I also have to go to the post office today. I still haven't mailed out your birthday present even though I've had it ready to go for a couple of weeks. Well, hopefully it will only be a day or so late. Later, A

Ah, August!

I'm ridiculously happy that the Fall Rowan magazine is here! This is my 2nd year in their club and I don't think I can love any knitting magazine more. Ahh . . .

Feeling a day late and a dollar short again, and looking forward to sharing my recent yarn dyeing experiment! Cindy

Finds and Plans

Hi Cindy!

Well, we didn't get a storm last night although parts of north Scottsdale really got hit. One condo complex had part of their underground garage flood. And we're not talking Fords or Chevies, we're talking Mercedes and Acuras. And the developer is not taking responsibility. Also near there a new housing development was flooded out due to regrading on an adjoining development. There were 8 swift water rescues in that area last night.

We've also missed out on rain so far tonight. There was a large storm over South Mountain about 2 hours ago but it never hit, it just kind of dissipated. Maybe later.

Last night I promised to tell you about some of my recent finds. About 2 weeks ago we went down to Changing Hands Bookstore. It is a nice mix of new and used books. They used to be on Mill Ave when it was still funky like State Street but it's gone corporate. This one in south Tempe has been there for a number of years and there is a Wildflower Bread Company right next door so you can get coffee and read. I found this. I think it was new, it wasn't marked like a used book. I've been slowly reading it but I'm only partway through the first chapter talking about color theory. It looks great and I can't wait to get farther into it.

Remember how we used to go to the book exchange when we were in high school. We have an even bigger and better one here in town. Bookman's is located in Mesa and they have other ones in Phoenix, Flagstaff and Tucson. They have tons of used books plus magazines, videos, records, tapes, cd's computer stuff, sheet music... The list goes on quite a ways. We've been taking books in there for years. We also got rid of DH's gameboy and games there. I'm usually able to get some fairly new novels there and DH scours the vinyl for old folk records. We went there on Sunday after lunch at Dragon Fly.

I'm pretty full up on books right now so I wasn't really looking for any novels. And their craft books are always picked over. In fact I don't think they had anything knitting or fiber related. Their craft magazines are usually just tons of quilting and cross-stitch ones (old ones at that). This week, however, I found a treasure trove. On closer inspection the three FiberArts had only been there since Friday and the American Craft only a month. I picked the most interesting looking ones. I would have grabbed a couple of more except I didn't know how much credit we were going to have and DH was getting 2 books and 3 albums. Part of me wants to go back and see if any more are still there.

My friend L that is expecting ended up in the ER the other day. She has this thing when she's pregnant that the taste of her own saliva makes her ill. She's been having a rough time of it and wasn't able to eat or drink for a few days, hence the trip to the ER. She has a due date of March 19 although she hasn't had her ultrasound yet so that could change.

It's nice to know though that I should have 7 months or so to knit stuff. Here is the first thing I have planned. The pictures are hard to see but it's a bunny hat and bunny booties. Instead of alpaca like called for in the pattern I chose a bamboo yarn by Coates and Clarke. Fiber Factory had it on sale and it is pretty soft. I used another bamboo yarn last year for booties for the twins and a hat for GMIL.

I'd best close this and head to bed. I don't know if I'll write again for the next few days. We are hoping to go camping with a few people from work up near Happy Jack. Here is one link to the area and here is another. I'll have to finish getting stuff ready tomorrow night because we're going to head out directly after work on Friday. We will probably get pretty wet up there, that area has been getting quite a few storms lately. I'll take pictures and report on it next week. Hopefully I'll be able to find a rock to sit on and knit or spin.

Take Care, A

Fence, storms, and finally some knitting

Hi Cindy!

Our fence mess seems to have resolved itself. No word from the neighbor in a week. Here is a picture of the fence before (remember the rain?).

Here is a picture of roughly the same angle although it is a little earlier in the evening. A storm is blowing into the north valley and we're waiting for it to come our way.




The new fence comes up several inches higher. It is a full six feet high instead of 5.3 or so. We were talking earlier about which storm would have knocked the old one down because it was bound to happen one of these nights if we hadn't gotten the new one put in.

We had a huge storm yesterday on our way home from work. It started raining about a third of the way home and kept it up for a couple of hours. We had quite a bit of street flooding in several places, even at the end of our street. The most impressive was driving through the Papago Buttes/Phoenix Zoo/Desert Botanical Garden area and seeing washes running and flooding out onto the road way. At ASU Maricopa County Flood Control measured almost 1.5 inches and we probably had about that much too. I don't know if we'll actually get a storm tonight. It looked like we were going to get blow-out a couple of hours ago from the south but that just dissipated. There was another one to the east that fizzled. Maybe the one from the north will bring us something.

So after finishing Harry a second time I've finally gotten back to knitting. Am I knitting my sock that is 3/4's finished? No, time to start a new project.

On a lark I started a log cabin blanket from Mason-Dixon Knitting. I am using some nice, clearance yarns I bought last year. Even at clearance it is still going to be a pricey piece. I'd love to get it big enough for the bed but I don't know if I can knit a queen-sized blanket. Here it is this morning. I've almost finished the current ball (Silk Garden-bottom left) I'm working on. Since it has color changes in it I'm just knitting straight and will change yarn when I finish a ball. I am thinking about using the heather yarn I spun in it too. I think the color would mesh nicely.

I'm going to finish this up with a picture of the Spinnin' Kitten in a more contemplative mood. She has decided she really likes laying on the desk while you're at the computer. This is fine while reading Knitty but makes it hard to do work when I'm telecommuting. She also likes to block your view when your playing a game (Cubis Gold is my fave).

Tomorrow, look for an upcoming project and interesting things I've found recently.

Take Care, A

On silk, the Tour, and learning to spin

Hi Alene, here's some of the silk hankies I spun on vacation, shown in my FIL's garden. My Tour started off well. I was spinning regularly and using the time to re-commit to exercising regularly. Somewhere mid-vacation I got off that plan and struggled to get back to it, even after we got home. For the Tour, I'm determined to give it a go again next year. The silk spinning has been a challenge: I found it was hard to draft evenly and hard to give it the "right" amount of twist, whatever that is, even with this nice spindle. Guess I'll reread those Knitty articles . . .

I took a spindle workshop in 2000 and a beginning wheel spinning class in maybe 2002? I haven't had any other classroom spinning so your classes sound great. I'd love to hear about them in more detail when you have time. I will be taking a spinning class this Sept. at the WI Sheep & Wool Festival. I haven't spun as many hours as most people think when I tell them when I got my wheel. Still I'm happy with my progress, and with wool at least, I can do pretty well. It helps that I like a little texture in my yarns. My spindle yarns tend to be more consistent than my wheel yarns cuz af the different amounts of practice time.

My wheel is a Louet S15DT. They don't make the S15 in a double-treadle any more but it is just like an S10DT without the hole in the wheel. I like it very much. It holds a lot of yarn on a big bobbin, is very low maintenance, and spins the kinds of yarns I like well. If I keep up with the silk I might want to get the high-speed flyer and bobbin for it. It has a strong take-up compared to some wheels and so would not be as good for cotton as a wheel with Scotch tension and high ratios. I wanted a wheel that would have me use my body symmetrically to reduce any strain and it has been super for that. I really like the upright double treadle models and don't mind a contemporary look (lots of of people love a more traditional style so that's another thing to think about). I also only had ~$300 to spend at the time, so it was a perfect fit. It doesn't fold up but it isn't too heavy; I usually choose a spindle for travel spinning but I have taken my wheel in the car in the past (it fit in my old Golf).

I have heard good things about the Joy and think it would be fun to try some other Ashford wheels. My colleague H loves her Kromski wheel. Schacht is coming out with a new wheel in the fall that looks like it will be great. Majacraft is another New Zealand wheel that I've heard is good. If I was looking now? Gosh, I'd have to try Schacht's new one and some others.

Hope the fence saga continues without further drama and that things are quiet and peaceful in lovely AZ. :) Cindy

Horrid Afternoon

Hi Cindy,

I don't know if you saw the news out of Phoenix tonight but we had two news helicopters crash here in town. As bad as that sounds it is even worse. They crashed in the park just across the street from where DH works and he looked down on the devastation from an office just across the hall from his cube.

I should explain a little further. DH and I work in high rises less than a quarter mile apart so we have lunch together most days. Today we went to Macayo's with my friend L and the new guy in her section A. A just started Monday, he grew up in Baraboo and got his degree at UW-SP. L and A both work in the groundwater modeling section. We got back to the office at 12:30 and I finished up the previous entry.

I had just posted it when DH called saying they'd just heard gun shots in the parking lot by Macayo's and that I should go take a look out the north window. While I was talking to him I could see a medical helicopter circling outside my south facing window (not uncommon because there's a hospital less than a half a mile south). I also heard a loud boom but didn't think much of that since Central Ave in front of us is in the midst of light rail construction. I called L to quickly tell her the news and then went to look out the north window. When I got there I saw black smoke billowing up from behind DH's building but it didn't look like it was coming from there. I started to walk back to my desk when he called on the cell phone saying that a helicopter had crashed and that he was watching it burn. It was especially hard for his office since they deal with emergency situations and wanted to help but obviously couldn't. I went off to find out more info.

Within about 5 minutes we found out it was 2 helicopters for local news channels that had collided in mid air and crashed into Steele Indian School Park. We spent hours today listening to the news and being glad it didn't hit one of the office buildings, apartment complexes or the VA Hospital right there. DH thinks that a fragment may have landed in the courtyard on the north side of their building. Several people he knows actually witnessed the collision and saw the explosion and crash. There were counselors available to them before he left. I could hear the shock in his voice as he was describing the scene and the flames.

From the picture you can see how close we were. The high-rise in the background is my building and the parking ramp at the right is the one at DH's building. It was a snarled mess getting out of the area, even 3 hours later. They had several streets closed even though the main part was in the park.

Oh, and the reason they collided and crashed... Some fool stole a truck and was being followed by the police. They'd blown out his tires and he'd hit a couple of cop cars. Then he car-jacked another work truck just south of DH's building. We're not sure if the sounds of gun fire that DH and his co-workers heard were something with that carjacking or the actual collision. I think it was the carjacking and that the boom that I heard while on the phone was the collision. The car-jacker fled the area and ended up barricaded in a house about 6-8 miles away. Not even his own house, he just burst in on people. He didn't even know that there had been a collision behind him.

The two stations that lost their reporters have had news coverage the entire time. A third station that was also filming the chase got some footage of the copters falling but not the actual collision. The one station actually had the pilot on live when it occurred and had to cut away when they realized something was wrong.

On that sad note I'll close this. Hopefully I can write about something better tomorrow. A

What a week

Hi Cindy,

Wish I had some interesting project to write about but I haven't knit a stitch in the last week and the only spinning I've done was last night in class. It was the last class of the series so not I don't have any wheel time until I either buy one or take another class. I also don't have any knitting pictures so here's an interesting one of DH from the mine days. This is an old haul truck located at a very abandoned mine northwest of the Grand Canyon.

What wheel do you you have and how do you like it? I think I've narrowed my choice down to 2 or 3. I like the Ashford Joy a lot except that the orifice is a bit low for me and I feel like I lean to far forward. I've used it 2 or 3 times in class.

Last night I used the Ashford Traveler and it is probably at the top of my list right now. This is the second time I've tried it out. Of the two DH likes the look of the Traveler more, I think he wants to have something that looks nice setting out. The orifice height is good although I feel like I twist some due to the treadles being offset from the bobbin. It's not too bad so I don't think it would hurt my back in the long run.

The third one at the top of my list is the Kromski Minstral. It has the decorative turnings like the Traveler but is more in line like the Joy. The one in class tends to creek a bit if the support between the treadles is not set properly. It is less portable than the other two and for some reason I'd really like my wheel to be easily packed in the car.

Warning: Mild Ranting ahead

The new block fence in our backyard is almost complete. Well, the fence is complete but we are waiting on the gates which were supposed to be installed yesterday. Our neighbor, J, was being a little bit of a jerk about the fence. For years he's said we should do ours and theirs together. The wall between us is common and the old fence fell right on the property line. The guys demo-ing the old fence ran a laser down the center of it when they started taking out the old one. They then dug footings for the new one which were allowed to cure for a day before they began with the wall. That night J came banging on the door to "discuss" a problem. He thought that the footings were too far on his property and didn't think it was fair. Now granted the footings were 10" wide but most of the fence is only 4" with the support piers at 8". At most in a few places it would be 2" onto his side. J ranted about this for 10 minutes. The real reason we think he is upset is that we brought the new fence to the front edge of our house, about 15' out from the old one. For as long as we've been in the house he's parked extra cars and a trailer in that area of his yard, often getting into ours by several inches or even a foot. Now he won't be able to get that far over so close to the houses. He still has 30' or more from the street to park stuff. Well, when they came to build the wall on Wednesday I had them put the support blocks as far east towards our house as they could, more on our side than his. It is far enough over that he has a gap of 2"+ between his still standing gates and the new fence. Oh well, that's what he wanted. I can just let it go but it has been bugging DH since the rant and he's worried that J might sue us. We haven't heard more from him in nearly 3 days so I think it will be okay. (End rant)

The rest of the fence looks great although they haven't installed the gates yet and they were supposed to be there yesterday. Hopefully they'll be in when we get home. The block does make the yard seem a little smaller, probably because it is a full 6' high, not 5'+ pretending to be higher, and because it is solid now, not full of holes. It is just gray block now but we are planning on painting it this fall. I'm thinking mural and tile mosaics for a lot of it.

Update, 9:23 pm. The gates were in when we got home and they look great. Maybe a picture or two tomorrow.

FO

Dear Alene,
Here's the toe-up sock in progress, hanging in DFIL's Gravenstein apple tree (yum, pie). And here it is finished with Farli for scale ;) Since it is a sample for the shop, I made it a child's small from the toe-up chart in the summer issue of Interweave Knits. I did it on two sz. 2 circs. I'm happy with how it turned out, and I like the yarn. I was not however filled with a burning desire to knit more socks. I guess they'll remain only an occasional thing for me, as we previously discussed. I think the rest of the yarn would make a lovely scarf!


Next post: spinning and my Tour. Things have been nutty here since vacation, mostly cuz of kid sleep issues (trying not to whine, many families have those worse than us). HP was a bright spot in it all.
Cheers, Cindy