Monday, May 07, 2007

Snap.

Oh, ye productive weekend, how I love thee! We got so much done! Programs are printed, gifts are purchased, most of the spending is over with and we managed to keep it mostly confined to wedding spending - though there may have been a little stumble at Neiman's where I may have found a super-cute pair of Kate Spade strappy heeled sandals on sale and Travis may have made such a big deal about how great they looked and how insanely long they made my legs look that I may have been forced to purchase them. And we might have been so exhausted that we felt we deserved a nice trip to the salon for a manicure/pedicure. (Yes, "we". He's very 21st century, that man of mine, and I'm grateful for it. However, he was one of four - FOUR! - men in the pedicure chairs. Apparently grooming is the new not-grooming. Hurray for that!)

We also picked out a reading for the ceremony. It's a poem entitled "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love". It was not lost on Travis for a moment that I managed to track down a poem that was romantic, appropriate, AND contained a reference to both lambs and wool. (What can I say - I'm an evil genius.)

This morning it was back to reality. I very nearly got into a fist fight with the bus driver at the Park & Ride lot - he slammed the doors shut and jammed his foot on the gas when I was literally five feet away from the bus. I lurched forward and pounded on the door - he claimed to have not seen me. Horse doo-doo! I had to struggle to maintain composure, but I managed to just deposit my bus fare, glaring at him the entire time, and quietly retreat to the back to take my seat and mutter angry words under my breath for a moment until I decided to just be grateful to have caught the bus at all. Sixty miles round trip at three dollars a gallon, I HAVE to be catching that bus! (That's also precious stocking-knitting time that I can't afford to give up.)

Now that I have my spinning mojo back, my spinning spending mojo is back too...I ordered some yummy batts from Loop (her colors! her fibers!) and another braid of nummy roving from Funky Carolina, which I have earmarked to spin up for a pal in order to make up for my selfish decision to keep that gorgeous platinum yarn I spun last week. Speaking of last week's spinning...

Horsehare

A fun little skein I named "Horsehare", due to the fact that some of the fiber resembles the coloring of a bay quarterhorse my father used to have, and it has a bit of angora content. I got two batts of fiber from the Lime n Violet shop, and they coordinated so well that I smooshed them together and spun them as a single. (Kinda wish I had a drum carder sometimes...)

Horsehare

When I'd started it, I figured I'd ply it, but then as I continued spinning, I realized this stuff wouldn't want to be plied. It's very Noro-esque in its nature, and I like it this way. I forget what all fibers are involved, but I know there's wool, angora, and alpaca. I'm pretty sure there's some mohair slapped in there too.

Close-up, Horsehare

I tried to separate the roving into color sections - I didn't want it to spin in big solid chunks, but I did want a bit of a distinction - I think with the two rovings together, spinning it together without separating one of the rovings into segments would have created a pretty muddy yarn. I really love that neopolitan barberpoled bit there on the right. I've used about half of the roving, and I have 135 yards here, so I should end up with my standard mid-200 yards range. (I somehow always end up with 200-something yards. I wonder if I'll ever spin up some of the fibers where I have a pound or more and end up with productive yardage. I'm sure I will - but I'll probably do so over time, in 200-something yard increments.)

Happy Monday! Eeeghhhh....