Update

The spinning of the last few days

This is 3 ply from the Brown Sheep mill ends; wool and mohair. I didn't ply the earlier yarn I made from this as tightly as I did this, so not sure how well it will all work together in one project. You can see some of the earlier effort in the upper left of this picture. I'm considering running the older skeins back through the wheel for a bit more twist, as I've come to realize that I'd been under-plying my yarn up until about 3 weeks ago. Of course, there's so much fiber waiting to be spun, maybe I should just move forward from here and not try to go back and fix earlier efforts.

Last night I went to the knit night party at The Sow's Ear. They had a big turnout and I saw a couple of my favorite local blogger/knitters, Molly B (whom I'll never manage to call by her correct name), and Dale-Harriet. I met Dale's delightful daughter, Mary, and chatted a bit with Heather B. Also bought the Interweave Gifts issue (LOVE the cover hat!), the new Spin Off, and a couple big balls of locally made roving in wonderful subtle shades of grey, black, blues, and purples.

Today, I'm happy to report, The Little Emperor seems well! Hallelujah! His voice is almost normal, fever is gone, and appetite and energy levels are returning to normal. I hope we don't get any more bugs like that one this school year.

Also today, I went to the supermarket and stocked up on everything. Spent $175! That ought to hold us a little while.

While I was out getting pictures of the handspun yarn, I noticed a monarch working the butterfly bush flowers:



I got about 6 good images before she flew away.

Friday 5 October 2007

Sick Kid
Wow, where did that week go? Little Emperor has been out of school all week, running a fever, croaking like a frog and occasionally, barking like a seal. We went to see our buddy Dr. Claire yesterday, who confirmed that it's just a nasty virus. Lungs, ear, and throat are all ok. So, whatever great ambitions I may have had for the week are gone. I can't even remember what they might have been.

His teacher phoned Wednesday afternoon to find out what was up. She asked, "What did they think it was?" implying a trip to the doctor had already taken place. I thought she might write me up to Child Protection when I told her I hadn't taken him yet. And you know, with the first child, I would have been to the doctor on Tuesday, probably. But having been around the block a few times on this stuff, I know when I'm going to hear, "Just a virus; wait it out," and when I'm going to be leaving with a prescription for antibiotics. And Claire confirmed that they sometimes have a better idea of what's going on when it's been going on several days.

So, we're living mostly on shelf-stable stuff, like pasta, that's around, augmented by a take-out meal or two. I miss the supermarket.

Fiber News
I did a little spinning this week. More of the Brown Sheep mill ends 3 ply: two dark plies and one light one. I'll try to get pictures later today, but I have another skein's worth of singles to ply up, so will probably do that first.

Now, off to do a little laundry and see where the LE's at in his video. Those old Garfield DVDs run forever.

A Random String of Sentences Posing as a Post

a random photo apropos nothing in particular

This is a special kind of milkweed that is not winter hardy in our zone. It's growing in a big pot near the front door. We were talking about finding a winter home for it, but Mr. SABLE's workplace now forbids plants not provided by the official plant service. It's that German top-down management style in action again. Bah. And we don't really have a good bright window in our house where it can winter over.

So, this seems to be the week of the plans that come to naught. Yesterday morning, the LE awoke with a cough like a barking seal: not a lot, but a bit worrisome. Being the overly-conscientious mom that I am, I kept him home. By 9:30 a.m. I was regretting the decision, because he seemed quite well and perky. No cough unless I happened to ask how he was doing. Then, he produced a feeble and somewhat theatrical little cough for me.

This morning, when I went to get him up for school he again had the seal-barking cough. And he felt hot. And was running a small fever, about 100.7 F, or 38.7 C. So he stayed home again today. Today he seems like a sick kid: lying around, not eating much, not demanding as much, kind of losing his voice. I keep sneaking off to get other stuff done, but my windows of opportunity are about 15 minutes each, max. The good thing about keeping him home yesterday is that I probably avoided exposing more children to whatever he has, at a time when he probably would have been more contagious. Small consolation. I have to remind myself that part of the reason I don't want to work outside the home now that both kids are in school, is so that I can be available on a moment's notice when one or both of them are not at school, for whatever reason. But it's boring for me, being On Duty for a sick kid.

I finished some socks a couple days ago. They were supposed to be for Mr. SABLE, but when I finished the first one, even though I made it really really big, it was clear that it wasn't big enough. It did fit Owen, though, so I made the matching one for him and he's got a new pair of handknit socks. Mr. SABLE will get the next pair.

I've been working on various UFOs and WIPs, too. The Fair Isle cardigan and Mr. SABLE's Tweedy Sweater (LONG overdue!) being the two main ones.

Off to serve more soup to the sick kid.

Much better today

Thank you all for your concern. I don't know what was wrong with me yesterday but a fever and excruciating headache are the main symptoms of lots of nasty stuff. I wasn't entirely joking about West Nile, but I wasn't panicking because
A) my fever wasn't that high and
B) I wasn't confused or having more serious neurological symptoms.
My husband kept asking every hour if I was confused and how the stiff neck was doing. I was reading on the CDC website about West Nile and there's really no point in going to my doctor early on anyway, as there's nothing she would do but send me home to wait and see.

I still had a low fever early on today and I can still feel a slight pain in the top of my head with sudden movement, but I have something close to normal energy levels, ate a healthy and substantial dinner, did some laundry, and spent the evening spinning.

Tomorrow I drive back up to St. Paul to pick up Owen at camp. I have a fellow fiber-geek friend riding along with me and her son who's a computer geek like Owen. So, the boys will be ensconced in the way-back row of of the mini-van and my friend will ride up front and knit and we can chat. Her son has gone to camps run by the same outfit, but in another city, for four years and he loves it. So, we figure the boys will have lots to chat about, too.

I've begun spinning some of the Brown Sheep mill ends. This fiber really does benefit from pre-drafting to loosen it all up. If I owned a drum carder, I'd probably pass it through to randomize the colors a bit, loosen it all up a bit, and maybe remove some of the short bits that were created by occasional blunt cuts across the roving. To me, it's worth the work because the price is right, but I can imagine that some spinners would rather spend more for fiber that you can spin right out of the box.

No pictures tonight, either, but maybe over the weekend. Mostly I wanted to let you all know that whatever bug I was fighting is losing this round.

Sick.

On Saturday, The Little Emperor was spiking a fever of about 104 and we had to go to urgent care. The diagnosis was herpangina, an enteric virus more common in kids and in summertime. He made a very speedy recovery.

Last night, I started feeling a little unwell. This morning I was spiking a low fever and felt like I had a spike driving through my head. I haven't had a headache like that since one particularly awful hang-over in college about 1981. I've been lying in bed most of the day, dozing on and off. I think it might be West Nile, judging by the symptoms. I hope it goes away fast because I don't want to spend another day in that kind of misery.

I'm hoping to sleep now.

(cough, sneeze, hack) Oh, Hi! (cough, cough)

We've been having a craptacular week here. The Little Emperor came home from school on Tuesday with goopy eyes, which wasn't too surprising, because kids in his class have been sharing that lately. Over the weekend, I started coming down with a cold which has hit me hard. You know how some colds just kind of slow you down a bit, but really, you go right on with life and it's no big deal? And others? The expression "It's just a cold," was not meant to describe those germs. I started with a four day sore throat and have coughing and sneezing and stuffy sinuses. My temp has fluctuated a bit, but stayed under 100, so it's not influenza. It's just a really obnoxious rhinovirus. I've been sleeping an extra four hours a day when I can and just dragging through the waking hours. Mr. SABLE took some days off, so I could rest while he did kid duty.



Yesterday I was feeling a bit better in the afternoon and I realized it was time for dandelion dyeing! I had two 100 gram skeins of Knit Picks Bare, in fingering weight saved for this.



I got a paler yellow this year than last, but I used proportionately less alum and cream of tartar to mordant the yarn and probably a lower proportion of dandelions, and I probably didn't let everything cook as long this year, either.



Still, it's nice yellow yarn; enough to be a major component of a fair isle garment.

Mr. SABLE is itching to try rhubarb next. We have a lot of that, too.