Not a Single was Harmed

I have finished spinning the colourway 'Cupcake' which D3 generously gave me to supplement the two braids which I received and spun ages ago but realised that there was not really enough to knit anything meaningful.  Today I plied it and tomorrow I will skein it off, wash it and see if it matches the first skein.  It is always a worry that, especially when there is a time lapse between spinning the first and second skeins, that they will be of different thickness; although I am spinning much more consistently than I used to.

It takes me two hours to ply two full bobbins onto a jumbo bobbin and up until now I have always stood to do it; today I decided to sit down ... not a good idea.  For some reason the bobbins kept on unwinding down onto the Lazy Kate and I would have to stop and unwind the singles.  Then disaster struck and the plied yarn fell off the bobbin and into the bearing.  I had to remove the jumbo bobbin and wind on the plied yarn by hand  - until I came to an almighty tangle of singles.  I thought that I would have to break one of the singles and spit-join it all up but, with much patience and swearing I managed to untangle it without breaking anything.  I had a cup of coffee and plied the rest of the skein standing up.  There is still quite a bit of spun singles on one of the bobbins and I might ply it with some remnants on another couple of bobbins and start knitting Granny Squares.

It hasn't been a good week; my dishwasher suddenly started screaming a couple of nights ago and then flashed a message "Technical fault: Call maintenance" .  The next morning I looked at the book of words which said that I should wait for five minutes and try again and if the same message flashes up to do as I was told, so I tried again with the same result.  I phoned the Miele maintenance people who can't come until next Friday  -  over a week.  So I am washing up by hand and Multiplex, in its wisdom, neglected to give the apartments draining boards so I am having to take one of the racks out of the dishwasher to stack the dishes on.  It is all very untidy.

I am decreasing for the raglan sleeves of the 'sloppy joe' sweater which I am knitting with the Rosewood colourway from GreenwoodFiberworks and I am going to have heaps over because I spun seven skeins and will probably only need half that amount  -  scarf, gloves and hat?

Here is a picture of the two skeins of Cupcake.  Click on the picture to enlarge it.

 

I have finally signed up to paypal

... and not without difficulty.

I filled out the online form which paypal promptly rejected, telling me that I had left something out  -  it didn't say what I had left out but it zero'd my password so I tried changing it.  Still paypal rejected my data.

I worked through, changing minor details while I looked for a field which I had missed but still it said 'no'.  Finally I started tinkering with my postal address  -  I have seven of them, most with variations.  Suddenly I was in and a message popped up to say that they had checked my address against the Post Office records and I had (finally) given them the correct one according to Australia Post.  It is not my address according to the Claremont Council and not my address according to the Electoral Roll but it is the only one which paypay recognises.

I have been spinning a fibreclub offering which is basically red , green  and yellow and white in between.  I have an aversion to spinning red and green together as it ends up a sort of muddy brown so I laboriously separated the colours and used my blending board to make rolags of the different colours.  I am not very good at spinning woollen and the tension on Roberta was playing up but I got it all done and the effect is wonderful.  It is red at one end and graduates through pink, apricot, yellow and green.  I will post a photo of it wound into a ball for knitting as it shows the colour gradient very well:  then I will knit a scarf.

I am about halfway up the back of the Sloppy Joe which I am knitting with the Rosewood colourway and there is going to be a lot over so I might get a slouchy beanie and a pair of mittens to match but they will have to wait ... I have a lot of braids waiting to be spun before I branch out.

Oh  -  and I finally finished the Beastly Black jacket and it fits, is warm and very comfortable  -  and we are having the warmest August on record.  *sigh* 

Edited to add the promised photo.  Click on the image to enlarge it. 

 

Now I think that I have seen everything ...

I was wandering Coles Supermarket this morning looking for a showercap (sometimes they have them but mostly they don't) and my eye lit upon Caffeine Shampoo and Conditioner "To stimulate the roots of your hair".  I think that beats 'Posturepedic" mattresses.  Since Orthopaedic means "straight child" I assume that posturepedic means 'posture American child'.  I need to come out of the closet at this point and admit that I am a member of a Pedants Group on http://librarything.com but posturepedic makes as much sense as buying a caffeine shampoo.  Why not simply use a coffee rinse of you are gullible.

I moved into this apartment on 2nd August 2011 so I have now been here for three years, although it still feels new and strange.  I lived in the last place for almost 50 years and although I did a major renovation it was always home.  I haven't been back since the day I moved out; I don't want to see or know what has been done with it by subsequent buyers.

I am spinning the 'Minestrone' colourway from Kathy's Fibres and will make a quick-knit scarf as I will only have one skein and the spinning is very uneven while I teach myself to spin rolags on E.Roberta.  I have had to increase the twist to prevent it from breaking and for some reason it is not winding on as consistently as it does when I spin tops with a short forward draw.  With the rolags I am having to take advantage of the Irish tension and do a sort of modified long backdraw to keep firm tension on the singles.

I am wearing the BB in the evenings and it is lovely and warm and comfortable but I am not sure just how durable it will be.  I'll know by the end of winter.

Here is the BB, modeled by D2.  Click on the pictures to enlarge them.

The big six-wheeler, Scarlet Painted, Transperth Transport ...

I have given away my car in exchange for a donation to a charity of my choice and am now exploring the intricacies of the public transport system.  I have used the trains for many years; they run on finite tracks and stop at every station (except the express trains at peak hour) so I have always been confident that I will arrive at my destination ... but buses have no such restrictions and only stop if someone indicates that they want to get on or off.  And you have to plan your journey  -  or take a taxi  -  if you want to get creative about your destination.  At least it is free if you choose your times.

My poor little car was sitting on Level 4 collecting dust.  Someone was even rude enough to draw hearts and Mickey Mouse faces on the bonnet and I was feeling guilty about the state of her battery.  When I started having to open the door with the key I realised that something needed to be done  -  so she now has a new home and a new owner.

I finally finished knitting and sewing up the Beastly Black and it has turned out to be a rather nice jacket which actually fits me.  I do not want to wear it until I have photographed it so I am waiting for Friday when D2 and I are having morning tea and hopefully I can persuade her to model it for me.

I am now knitting the Rosewood into a Sloppy Joe and spinning the Kathy's Fibres fibre club offering which kept breaking as it has rather short staple. So I am processing it on my blending board, separating the colours as best I can and spinning it 'woollen' which is turning out a bit rough in places so it will be a novelty yarn and is destined to be a scarf.  I have almost finished the first half of the red section but my hands are tired and my thumbs are sore so I am having a break.  Today is a Fast Day so I can't take any anti-inflamatories and I don't want the lingering scent of liniment on the finished scarf.

I will post photos of the Beastly Black, the Rosewood knitting and the Minestrone spinning in due course.

Here is the Minestrone before I interfered with it.  Click on the picture to enlarge it.

I have finished spinning the Rosewood braids at last

This morning I plied off the last of the Rosewood colourway braids after a marathon spinning effort yesterday.  I seem to be spinning thinner and thinner so I am going to end up with more than enough for a sweater and probably a scarf, mittens and beanie as well.  I am going to be knitting it for longer than I took to spin it at this rate.  And D3 gave me ten braids of BFL and silk for my birthday so that will be another long term project.

I still have the aubergine bump which I plan to spin woollen and thicker on my treadle wheel but she is out of commission at the moment, waiting for some leather thonging to re-attach her footman to her treadle, as the heavy cotton string snapped and it doesn't seem useful to replace it with more of the same.

I had to abandon the babies for 24 hours, albeit with lots of food, a filled water fountain and extra litter trays, while I went into hospital to be prepped for a routine colonoscopy.  It was all clear so I don't have to go through it again for at least five years  -  thank goodness.  But a word to the wise  -  when planning to have a colonoscopy don't eat kale!!!  Anyone who has ever had to do the prep will know that one is expected to monitor the results and I got the impression that the kale from the kale and lentil soup which I had eaten a couple of days before was clinging grimly to my insides and only reluctantly allowing itself to be dislodged.

 TMI?  Probably ...



If Firefox will allow it, here is a photo of all that Rosewood.  Click on the picture to enlarge it. 

 

I've finished the back of the Beastly Black

This morning I finished knitting the back of the 'Beastly Black Corriedale" jacket, the fibre of which I started spinning last October.  I have only got the sleeves to knit and they will be easy and relatively fast as they are mostly stocking stitch, unlike the reams and reams of ribbing which I had to do for the front and back.


I am also about to start spinning braid 12 of the 'Rosewood' colourway for a plain, V-necked, raglan sleeved sweater.  Having, in my dewy youth knitted a mixed colour sweater (two strands, one light and one dark) I know that mixed colour ribbing can look awful so I have purchased one braid of Metro Brown from GreenwoodFiberworks.etsy.com  and will knit the ribbing mainly in the Metro Brown with a stripe of Rosewood to pull it all together.  I am putting off spinning the Metro Brown so that I will finish spinning the Rosewood before I start knitting.


Having handed over my car to Herself yesterday I no longer feel as though I have cut my right hand off.  Yesterday morning was hard for me; it is such a lifestyle change to be carless after all these years but I know that I have the option of buying another car if I need the security. However, since I can't drive a night any more and I have the bus and train so close I can use taxis if I need to go anywhere off the beaten track.


I phoned the taxi company this morning and changed my pickup place as for some reason they had me living about a kilometre away.  I also confirmed that I can use a taxi to take the babies to the vet as long as I ask for an 'animal friendly' cab.  That means that I don't have to stop using the Cottesloe Animal Hospital, one of the main reasons I wanted to keep the car.  I have been using the Cottesloe vets for 50 years and they are one of the best  clinics in the State so I was reluctant to change to the Claremont Clinic.

Here is a photo I took for the guys on Ravelry.com ; click on the picture to enlarge it.

Biting the bullet #2

I have finally bitten the bullet and sold my car.  She is going to a friend, Herself, for the price of an ongoing donation to Medics Sans Frontiers and I will be dropping her off on Sunday when I go to the Self's for lunch.  When we were filling out the transfer forms I had to put in the odometer reading and was horrified to find that, in the six years I had her, I only managed a bit over 6,000 kilometres.  Since I can't drive at night any more due to the effect of lights on my astigmatism she mostly sits and collects dust.  I have left open my option to buy another car if I feel that I really need one but if I do I will get one similar to the one which D3 has, with front and back cameras and GPS.


I am feeling sad about letting her go, apprehensive about how I will manage without a car and will have to stop going to the Cottesloe Animal Hospital where I have been taking my animals for fifty years and instead take the babies to the Claremont Vet who is just down the road and I can walk there with the Kitty-carriage.


Meanwhile, someone in a HUGE SUV has taken over my second car space.  I left a polite post-it note and then a large note fixed to the windscreen with sticky tape.  Next time it might be duct tape and then superglue but if it continues I will report it to the Council of Owners.  I have no idea who it is  -  they have certainly never asked if they could park their monster there on my property.  Had they done so I might have agreed since my spaces are destined to be empty but they have seriously annoyed me now.  The best solution would be to clamp the vehicle but that is beyond my powers.


Yesterday was a serious computer day.  I arrived home from COTA to find that my Windows Live Mailbox was empty.  The storage folders were OK and all the mail was still on my webmail  -  so I phoned iinet and they had to close my account and open it again, after which 227 emails (most of which I had previously deleted) fed back into my mailbox and I had to delete most of them all over again.


Then, because I had problems at COTA with accessing my own web pages (I was teaching a client about keywords and how they are set) so I tried on my own computer last night and found that I couldn't open the website. I phoned iinet again only to be told that it was an ongoing problem probably due to their upgraded security measures and that their technicians were working on it.  I subsequently found that the problem was first reported on February 8th so it is taking them quite a while to sort it out.  However, this morning the site was up and running with working links again so maybe it was just a temporary glitch.


Meanwhile I intend to go back to my mailbox and move all my genealogy and family emails into folders to quarantine them from further vanishing acts.  I have a large number about Great Great Uncle Charles and his doings which I don't want to lose since most of it is not documented elsewhere and with no source material I won't put it onto my family tree.