Rooted in Mississippi

I am home with a bad cold. I came home from work Tuesday, crawled into bed and slept for nearly two days. Yesterday I was doing better, but still felt feverish this morning, so I decided to stay home another day. The coughing and sneezing are finally under control!

By noon, I actually felt well enough to try to spin a little, so I got out some New Zealand Romney top and decided to take the Traveller for test drive. It took me a long time to get around to actually trying this wheel, because of the creative funk. I bought the used double treadle, double drive Ashford Traveller from a Spindlers list member and it included the bulky flyer and a slew of bobbins. I have the original flyer on, but I am trying to spin thick. I wanted to get a feel for the original set-up before I tried the bulky attachment.

I spent my holiday weekend cleaning out closets and rearranging my spinning fiber stash. I have all of it in cotton bags, pillowcases and mesh bags. I keep most of it stored in a cedar wardrobe in the living room instead of the studio. I thought taking an inventory and sorting my stash would help me get over my creative slump. I also needed to get ready for the incoming stash from my holiday purchases.

I also wanted to show a photo of the purse for Janice. It is so hard to felt in a front loading washer. It really makes me miss my old Whirlpool. I guess she can always toss it into her washer and try to felt it a little more.

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I know I am sort of late, but I wanted to catch up a little. For the most part, the house thing is resolved. I finally have access to the proceeds and I paid off all my credit cards and put some money into savings. Now I can’t feel any guilt about buying the Ashford Traveller or letting my husband buy me the Reeves 30″ Saxony.

The irony is that now that I have two spinning wheels, I have not had the urge to spin. I have been knitting a little, I made a few scarves and some hats and a purse for my sister. The purse is the Sophie by Julie Anderson is available free at the MagKnits website. I did it using a really old skein of Brown Sheep Company Lamb’s Pride. How old you ask? So old that the retail price was $4.50! Janice loved the color and laid claim to the bag when I was in Atlanta. I’ll post a photo this week.

I really need to stitch, but I just can’t find my groove. I have several projects that I was supposed to participate in and some recent invitations, but I just can’t seem to find any inspiration. I have not even thought about working on my EGA Master Craftsman Program. I had a big lull in creativity post 9/11 and I think I am feeling some of that post Katrina. I really hope that I can get my act together and get back to stitching.

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Well, first, we had to hire a structural engineer to check out the house, but luckily he did not find any damage and the bank finally cut a check, so the title company wrote me a check. Well, that lasted less than a day, and I had to refund $700 because of a clerical error. But, with luck, this will all settle once the check clears and I can have access to the funds.

On the way to and from Atlanta, I stopped by Knit Nouveau in Helena (just outside of Birmingham). I bought a lot of clearance yarn, some needles and a set of Denise Interchangeables. My sisters and I also *shopped* in my mother’s yarn closet! I came back with a whole lot of yarn. I also taught my sister and sister-in-law how to cast-on and how to purl…and taught my other sister how to use DPNs and got her started on a French Market Bag from Knitty. So it was a very fiber oriented weekend.

It was very nice to see my whole family, even if the reason was so sad.

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Well, everything is still unresolved, as in there is no check from the bank. At this point, all I can do is wait and see what will happen. I am leaving for Atlanta this morning, despite this giant sword of Damocles hanging over my head.

We are having a family reunion of sorts. All of my siblings will be there, but not all of the husbands, wives and children. One of my sisters called last night and we talked for hours, even though we will be sleeping in the same room tomorrow night. It is so nice that we became friends after we all grew up and went our separate ways.

All three girls have intimacy issues, we have all struggled with eating disorders, panic attacks, anxiety and even periodic depression. We all came out of childhood with what my husband describes as *an unsettled feeling.* We are all so different and yet so alike.

I hope to have a little time to keep up with things while I am back home.

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