Rooted in Mississippi

A sincere thank you for all the well wishes. The bites are healing, the swelling is going down and the bruises are fading. Princess is oblivious and her behavior has returned to normal. I spent the whole day in the house, watching the Project Runway marathon. In general, I dislike reality shows, but my sister got me interested in this series while I was in California. I was able to watch Season 3 in its entirety today and the dogs liked that I was a complete couch potato!

My husband was much more productive. I noticed on Saturday afternoon that Omar’s (the greenhouse cat) belly was swollen abnormally.  When it became clear that it was not a hairball, he took him into the vet. They think that it is some kind of infection and decided to keep Omar for a few days. With luck it will be something treatable and he will be back home before the weekend.

I wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year!

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The break from posting was unintentional.  I am paying the price for trying to walk Princess on a leash Friday. It was a huge mistake, she went nuts and ended up biting me several times. She is back to normal now and acting like nothing happened, which is probably for the best. Needless to say, I will not try to walk her again. She will just have to get all of her exercise in the backyard!

As per my doctor’s instructions, I am washing my hands repeatedly with an antimicrobial surgical scrub, then covering the puncture wounds with antibiotic ointment. My doctor also prescribed an oral antibiotic and something for the pain, but it turns out that I am mildly allergic to Lorcet. Even with Alleve, my hands are too sore to knit, crochet or embroider…so I have basically done nothing but watch television for a couple of days.

The worst part is that I can not get back to working with wool until all of the wounds are healed and there is no threat of secondary infection. Even though I had plans to finish up with the fleece before year end, all carding and spinning is on hold for at least another week, maybe longer. This was not exactly how I expected to spend the last weekend of the year, but that is the way it works out sometimes.

I wish you all the best in the New Year!

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I have been carding a fleece for several days that I mistakenly thought was Rambouillet, but soon realized was not. I am sure there is an index card somewhere, but I have not seen it lately. Then I got the idea to search my own blog and found this entry and this one too! Now I know that this fleece is actually Shetland that I bought at ROC Day 2006, which really makes better sense.

I really need to dig through my stuff and get it all organized! Things are so crazy here at the wool carding house, that my husband accidentally picked up a hitchhiker. The poor man leaned over and a batt got stuck to his back and he could not understand why I was laughing hysterically. If ever there was a pee in your pants funny moment, this was it. Well, that an a clear indicator that I am an awful housekeeper!

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Oh, today was one of my favorite kinds of days…we decided not to go out at all, except to walk four of the dogs. We had a nice lunch at home, then after a shower, I climbed into a fresh pair of jammies and have been lounging with my husband and dogs. I suppose I could have days like this whenever I want, but somehow it was special. I did not even turn the computer on until after noon.  The icing on my cake was when a gentle rain started.

I took lots of dog pictures yesterday. I thought Roscoe was especially cute on the arm of the sofa, where he could catch a few rays. Everyone seemed to be in a very restful mode, until I got a wild hair and decided to put the princess jacket on Roscoe. The jacket is too small for her, but it did fit him and I thought it was kind of funny. He seemed grateful when I removed it.

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After all that cooking, we did some eating and my husband was thrilled with the meal. This morning, I popped the pasta I prepared yesterday into the oven and we had it for lunch. It was another big hit. So was the organic pumpkin pie, which I had with a cup of decaffeinated coffee. I got a new single serving coffee maker (a Melitta One:One) at a deep discount store a few days ago and have been testing different coffee pods.

When I was not cooking or eating, I managed to get all of the Icelandic fleece carded. It is a lovely soft gray and I look forward to spinning up a sample. Like the cheviot, this was also “free” fleece and was littered with debris. It is so tedious picking out all of that chaff, but it needed to be done. Despite some people making fun of using tweezers on one of the spinning lists, I had mine out while I was carding this wool.

Actually, I have gotten a lot done today. I washed several loads of clothes, did dishes and cleaned the filter on the vacuum. I have been throwing out trash, shredding old documents and getting rid of some junk. I also started filling up a few boxes with household goods to be donated to charity, including my old coffee maker!

On the canine front, Princess has been digging like mad in the backyard. She lets Rudy or Roscoe start the hole, then she takes over and goes nuts. I do not mind the digging and I understand that it is part of the nature of the dachshund. Plus, let’s be honest, the girl needs some exercise and since I can not get her to walk on a leash, I will take what I can get.

There is also a long video on YouTube, but I am sure Annmarie will be the only one who watches it the whole way through. It is fascinating to watch her use her teeth, as well as all four paws. She is one really determined dog.  My husband filled in this hole last night, but she dug it back out today.

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I went to the grocery store to get some last minute ingredients for dinner, but I was sucked in by all the displays for holiday feasts. The northeast Jackson Kroger is in the middle of a huge remodel and has opened the new side, where they moved produce, deli, bakery, and an expanded organic section.  There are so many new things, that it is a little overwhelming.

I came home with a wagon load of stuff and am making a feast for tonight, which will provide ample leftovers for the coming week. I have the last five mintues to go on a squash casserole and a green bean casserole, and I am cooking a spiral sliced ham as I type. The melted chocolate for my ice cream cake, turned into fudge, but it will be all right. I also have bread ready to toss into the oven with the casseroles just before dinner.

I also have the chicken cooking, because that was what I set out to make today. I will go ahead and start a giant pot of Matzo Ball soup and put together the baked pasta, so that we can cook it when we need it. That is the nice thing about having the deep freezer, it gives me options.

I have been chatting with Lisanne at P is for Primitive and I will be demonstrating spindle and wheel spinning at her shop in the new year. I am also talking to her about the possibility of doing a trunk show, which would be a lot of fun, even if no one buys a thing! Nothing is firm yet, but it is exciting to start a dialog.

Now for a tiny bit of doggy cuteness, I posted a video of the dogs playing with their new Booda Hotdog and Hamburger squeaky toys. A little bonding time for Roscoe and Rudy.

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I have been carding for about a week and have managed to get a lot of fleece processed. This is the last step before spinning and is where I tend to get bogged down, because I find it tedious. That is especially true when I have to stop and pick out bits of VM from the fleece. However, I am on a roll right now, so I plan to get all of my carding done before year end. I just started carding some washed fleece (Icelandic) from 2005!

The photo on the left is of my temporary carding set-up on the coffee table. The trash can below is filled with VM and bits of wool.  I don’t bother with anything that littered with stuff, because someone might be allergic to the chaff. I do, however, collect the neps and noils off the carder.  I already have a gallon sized ziploc bag full of Cheviot and a quart sized bag of Rambouillet, which will make excellent stuffing for pincushions.

And now for gratuitous doggy cuteness. Here are a couple of candid shots of Rudy, Louie and Roscoe.

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I made a trip down to Hattiesburg early yesterday morning to buy a spinning wheel and a yarn blocker. She tossed in some silk yarn, some camel down, some cotton and a little angora. The dogs went nuts over the rabbit fluff, especially Rudy and Roscoe. I had to put it out of their reach so that they would not try to play with it!

The wheel is a very old Ashford Traditional single drive with scotch tension. It came with the brochure that has the photo of Walter’s daughter Gay on the cover. I would guess it was one of their kit wheels from the late sixties or early seventies. I have no idea why there are yellow stickers on it, but they were on the wheel, the bobbins and the lazy Kate.

Anyway, the weather was treacherous and I was eager to get home, so I did not even bother to stop anywhere while I was there, so I was home before noon. You can see the big stack of carded Cheviot on top of the umbrella swift in the photo on the left.

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I finished carding the last of New Zealand Romney and decided to stack it up in front of the fireplace to take a photograph, before I bagged it and put it away. This experiment with buying scoured fleece was pretty much a failure, I would rather buy prepared fibers or wash it myself.

Now I have started carding up the last bag of washed Cheviot from Tylertown. It really is soft, lovely, lofty fiber. What a shame that it was dropped on a dirty barn floor after shearing and is just covered in vegetable matter. Even with skirting, picking, washing, and now several passes through the carder, it still has lots of VM.

The wool I am working with now was the best of the several fleeces that I was given. The lock structure is nice and the staple is long, but in addition to the excessive VM, the tips were all glued and matted. It is easier to cut off the tips than it is to deal with them. I really love the way it feels, I just wish it were not so labor intensive. Maybe I will get some of this on the wheel before the end of year. I think I will spin sock yarn with it!

I also started working on the next issue of CQMagOnline. It is just over a month until we publish the January issue. This issue is always the hardest, because of the holidays. So if you have an idea for an article, want to participate in the Barbara’s Challenge, or have photos to submit to the Readers’ Showcase, this would be a good time to do it!

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Roscoe is home! He tolerated his treatment and did not have a reaction to the arsenic, but now comes the long process of keeping him relatively calm while the dead worms break up and move to his lungs to be disposed of as waste product. He goes back in four weeks for another shot, to kill the immature worms, then gets tested two weeks after that. If he is clean, he will go on to heartworm preventative. He is just two weeks behind Louie in the whole process.

Oh, and the vet said the place on his back is a reaction to the vaccinations, not the microchip, and it should resolve itself. He said that it is common in Dachshunds, although I have never had it happen with any of the other four.  Roscoe seemed so happy to get home and see the other babies. Actually all the dogs seem happy, even Princess and Oscar.

On the fiber front, I successfully registered for a spinning workshop in March. Lewis White of Little Barn is hosting a spinning conference in Huntsville, AL. I am excited that I got my confirmation and I am in the Yarns that Go Bump!: Spinning Designer Yarns with Patsy Zawistoski class. Her video Spinning Wool: Basics and Beyond is wonderful and helped me improve my spinning. I was worried that I might not get my first choice, since the class limit is just 15, but I did. I would have been happy in my second choice classes if this one had been full. I am just excited to have something like within driving distance.

I have also continued to card the white NZ Romney wool. I am down to my last few batts. After I finish with that, I may as well get out another one of my washed fleeces and keep going.  I finally figured out a way to sit in front of the TV and do the carding, by mounting the carder to the dining room table.

I need to get my act together and get some things listed in eBay and Etsy. I am not sure why I have been procrastinating, but I have.  I have also been procrastinating on doing my stuff to submit to the Craftsman’s Guild of Mississippi for the March jury process.  I am not ususally one to drag my feet, but everything seems to be moving in slow motion.

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