Mojo

Mojo
Originally uploaded by spindledreams

Mo recently gave us a real scare. He would yelp and start to turn to the right, was unresponsive to us until touched. At 13 years old we know that every day is now really borrowed time but the thought of losing him is still very hard to bear.

When my friend Margaret brought him to us as a present he would fit in my hands with his skin dripping through my fingers. I can still remember vividly how he look like a little puddle of shadow when he slept in a corner. He chose my husband as his person and no matter how bad he felt being with Toli was the thing that mattered most.

We have almost lost him before. When he swallowed a wasp and had an allergic reaction to at sting in his throat, when he wondered out a gate left carelessly open by a meter reader, and when he was first diagnosed with FSF, but those were nothing like our feelings this time. Probably because we are now acutely aware of how precious each day with him is.

Celebrations and Challenges

ready for the challange 2
Originally uploaded by spindledreams

Today is the hardest day for the Tour de France riders. They have two tall mountains to climb but it is also a sort of hump day that signals the end of the tour is nearing. After today there are only four more days of riding.

In the Tour de Fleece we are supposed to challenge our selves today. My increased effort will be attempting to spin cotton my my tahkli. I of course had to make it a real challenge by picking the shortest staple cotton in my stash. The fiber Peruvian colored cotton in the Mauve color.

Here in Cheyenne today is Cheyenne Day. The fun starts with the free pancake breakfast downtown. In the past he base has had an open house in many of its historic buildings, the Guard base will have an open house and a static display of all kinds of aircraft will be there for viewing. In the afternoon the Thunderbirds will put on an aerial show. And of course it all ends with a big concert and rodeo at Frontier Days. This year it will be Rodney Atkins performing. Yep this is a big annual event centered around the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo which is still going stronger then ever after more then 110 years. If you are into western this is the place to be the last full week of July. Grin I call it a Cowboy Carnival as for almost two full weeks everyone is a cowboy or cowgirl. ;-)

have you ever heard of a tahkli?

tahkli
Originally uploaded by spindledreams

It is a small fast supported spindle used to spin cotton and other short stapled fibers. I have a large one that I have never been able to make work right. Then I saw these coin tahkli on sale. The are made and sold by Spinnerdude on Etsy and figured I could afford another spindle I can't spin. Then I found the funds for his kit and figured what the heck lets make it 2 cheap spindles you can't spin, 4 oz camel down and a DVD that might help. (Yeah right dorothy who are you kidding you really just wanted the camel down ;-))
Grin surprise I can spin his little coin Tahkli and even bigger surprise I am having a blast with them. But man I did not realize how much 4 oz of camel down was! Oh that DVD it is not as bad as he makes it out to be and yes it did help.

Lace

falbala row 11
Originally uploaded by spindledreams

Ahhh Falbala how do I love thee. She is a crochet lace triangle shaped shawl. I am using Brown Sheep Wildfoote in Vanilla for her and she is beautiful.

CROCHET!

Man is my mind wondering a lot these days. Can I blame it on the cough? Which is still going strong on week 4 and we are no closer to knowing what the cause is then when I first went to see the doc.

I have all these fair projects carefully thought out. Remember the baby set etc...

So why did I let Jabberjaws AKA Jill talk me into not just a crochet project but an IRISH CROCHET project. I know it is crocheted with Bulky yarn or worsted held double but still Irish Crochet! And with charts! Surprising as sick as I have been feeling this has become my comfort project and the front is nearly done. I have had a couple of times when I got stumped by the chart for a bit when the written pattern didn't help much. But that join with a half double crochet (American terms) I would never have figured out with out the pattern or help. OH JILL where have you been?

I have not been totally neglecting my fair projects The baby hat is now 2/3s done sigh just have about another inch or so before binding off. Socks are still on hold from lack of desire and Nessie, well Nessie and I are not really on speaking terms. I think I need to wait until I can concentrate before I pick her up again. AFTER I tink back this last row.

Weaving: I really need to get these looms warped and start I have the most wonderful yarn for a scarf on my little Emilia and I really should get to work on it.

Spinning: Silk on my Lady Ann do I need to say more. Sigh except to say I really have a big learning curve ahead of me before I can make a decent thread let along a skein. Learning how to spin on center weighted spindles is a goal I have for this year.

DPNs socks and doilies

Now I know I have not used DPNs in awhile but this was ridiculous. I got my stitches cast on and couldn't remember how to join them in a circle on DPNs!? So off I had to go in search of a good tutorial with pictures to show me how to use DPNs. It was rather embarrassing to say the least when I had to ask my online friends for help. But I got past it and even finished a baby sock and cast on a second one. Knitting away on the second one my hands started to itch for cotton thread. I started to LUST for a doily pattern. It has been so long since I made one...

I admit I caved I gave in and went searching the Ravelry data base for a pattern. I even found one sigh a beautiful complicated looking small knitted doily. I found this (excuse me while I wipe the drool away) which is just what I wanted but then someone mentioned that baby set... whimper I want to knit a doily I don't want to knit a baby hat.

Back to Ravelry and yippie I found a solution :) I am knitting a baby hat with a doily start. Now comes the funny part. Remember for those socks I had to relearn how to knit on my DPNs? I looked at the pattern set out markers, needles etc and started knitting. Boom just like that those YO at the start of each needle were automatic just like it had not been years since I knit them. Sigh I am in heaven and the baby set is getting a lovely hat. Oh I almost forgot the hat pattern is Star of The Day hat which you can find here



Oh the shawl that is Gail just ignore her she is being very patient waiting for me to finish my fair knitting. Grin considering that she will be frogged and restarted when I am not on heavy cough meds and can gasp count... she is being a good girl.

Blame it on Gail

I mean seriously if it weren't for Gail I would not be in this mess. This is Gail. Well granted you do have to scroll down to see the photos and find the link for the pattern but well you can see what I am talking about. Gail is the object of Knit Along in one of my Ravelry groups and Gail is beautiful and I was going to use my Blue Jeans sock yarn for her. But Gail and Blues Jeans don't work well together. I mean as in it was a HORRID pairing. :*( So I frogged Gail.


And as I was sitting here listening to Forever in Blue Jeans and looking at Blue Jeans it hit me. Why not try Blue Jeans in the Wild West Lace Shawl I wanted to make for Fair. Mind you I already had this shawl started. In fact I had two starts of this shawl in the same yarn on different size needles, neither of which I was happy with. So Blue Jeans got tried in that pattern...


The blue merino/tencel on the left and Blue Jeans on the right. Ladies and Gentlemen I think we have a winner and it is Blue Jeans.

So now what do I use for Gail and even more importantly what do I make with all this blueberry yarn?