Some Spinning, Some Garden Pics, and a Broken Appliance

First off, this brown yarn hanging out to dry on the clothesline is part of a very long term project to make myself a sweater from my own handspun.

This is three-ply, probably something like sport weight, and I think (would have to dig in my archives to verify), from a merino/romney cross fleece. This fiber came to me in a tremendous Craigslist deal a couple years ago. (Was it actually that long?) I'm sure this will be a very favorite sweater when I eventually finish it. But it's a lot of plain brown spinning.

This is a 7 gram mini skein of two ply yarn from Sarah's yearling lamb Spooky.

I bought this fleece from Sarah's recent sale. I have a bit to learn about processing a raw fleece for spinning, but I'm excited about this. It is next-to-the-skin soft! I'll probably make a nice three-ply yarn out of it eventually.

Next up, a bunch of nice flower images, taken over the last couple of weeks.










And finally, a broken appliance:

This is what a washing machine looks like without the big rectangular shell. Last week mine started making an ominous noise and yesterday I realized that it was no longer spinning out the water. It pumped out the water that sank to the bottom, but it was hard work moving all that sodden laundry out. I decided to hang it on the line, rather than stress my dryer because I think the dryer is next to go. Mr SABLE, being the handy guy he is, ordered the necessary part online last night, and should get it working by Wednesday or Thursday of the coming week. There might be one laundromat run in my near future.

Tempis Fugit and all that...

I feel like I'm so far behind, I must be ahead, or something...

Anyway, I've been knitting, but I can't show you that stuff quite yet.

I've been muddling along. Trying to keep the most basic of needs met for my family: clean clothes, milk in the fridge, and something to eat every evening around 6:00.

School ended June 12. My folks popped in for a quick visit last weekend. Owen left for a school trip on Monday. We helped out a friend with her day care crunch on Tuesday and Wednesday (her son gets on well with my younger one, in general). Took the little guy to the dentist on Thursday. Skipped book group Thursday evening. Went to the airport late Thursday night to pick up Owen. Found out the plane was delayed due to weather. Found out the plane returned to its last departure point when it couldn't land in Madison. Found out the plane would not, in fact, arrive in Madison until 8:30 the following morning. Then, left the airport around 12:30 a.m. Friday, drove through some of the most scary heavy rain I've ever driven in, got home a bit after 1:00, set the alarm to get up and be at the airport again by 8:30. Fortunately, this time the plane did land, and the 28 middle-schoolers and two teachers were able to get home. Owen slept for seven hours yesterday. I crashed on the couch before 9 last night and made it official by going to bed a bit before 10.

That's the recap in brief. I omitted all the tantrums and whining that I've mostly ignored.

This weekend, I hope to get a few patterns written and make a serious dent in laying out the next Knitcircus. And move my computer to the basement, where it's cool and quiet!

Garden Goodness!

The strawberries are ripening! I think in a few days, we'll have a whole bunch at once. This was the first one:

I ate it two nights ago. It was so good!

For some reason, we have this one solitary great big dark purple iris:



It's not a Siberian Iris: it's a way more substantial flower.

I was strolling around my neighborhood the other evening and I was quite impressed with all the big stands of irises in bloom. There must have been some great bargains on iris corms last fall, because I don't remember seeing so many around in previous springs. They sure do look nice, though. I think I might need to buy a dozen for Mr. SABLE this fall and see what he does with them...