Bumps and Loops

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Other than one small study about a year and a half ago, this is the first painting I've done in about 7 years. I don't know what got into me today. It's probably because I was thinking about some of the teachers that were at Vanguard during the years we were there and, since my office was next to the art classroom, I naturally thought of the art teachers. I think it lit a spark.

I stood there today for over four hours and did, first a sketch, then this painting. I was so absorbed in it, I forgot about the ankle I've been nursing for over two weeks. It was almost (I think) mended, but it definitely didn't like all that standing!

This painting is completely different from anything else I've done. The colors are a lot more clear and there's a lot more contrast than my other things. I like it. There are some technical things about it that are lacking, but overall, it's a pretty cool painting, in my estimation, especially after all that time. It also reminds me of my beloved long-legged water birds in Florida. They walk around the condo building and catch the little anoles.

I kept the painting supplies out. I'm going to try another painting tomorrow and see where that goes.

This one will be framed.

This was so quick and easy. Within a week, I had spun the fiber, plyed it, and knitted the scarf. This is a short scarf, meant to be worn with tucked into a jacket. The pattern calls for a button closure, but I like the scarf pick with it, instead.

For once, the weather casters are correct. It's really pretty, too.

This here stuff is called "Slipknot." Yes, it's named after the rock band. It's 100% merino wool, spun in a kind of thick and thin 2-ply. There's also a small (17 yard) single in about fingering weight. I got 115 yards of a mostly bulky weight 2-ply.



I think I'm going to make a Serafine out of it.

I've been working on this scarf, off and on, for the past week or so. It's called Branching Out and really fits its name. The yarn is Mongolian Cashmere 6-ply (worsted weight) from Jade Sapphire. The color of this yarn is just yummy. It's a kind of mossy green, but it has subtle variations that are not adequately photographed. This yarn is also incredibly soft and squishy - and expensive! Jim bought me the yarn (and about 3 other skeins of this pricey stuff). I only have one ball of each one, so will be making hats, mittens, scarves???

Jade is a star! She is published!

Here

Should any of you doubt it's coming, THIS is what was next to my front door today. There's another one on the other side.

What's up with this? Jade stayed in that position for so long, we weren't sure she was OK. She was. She was just being her odd self.

This one is going up on icanhascheezburger.com .

Do you see this:

That computer is located in Virginia. The TV show on the screen is Baynews 9 in St. Petersburg, Florida, 800 miles away.

This technology has fascinated me for years. We originally learned of Slingbox through a student that attended the school where we used to work. We didn't let him do it, since it sucked bandwidth away from the other students, but it was nifty technology, regardless.

You connect one (or more) of these Slingboxes to your cable system in one area and you can watch that TV anywhere you have an Internet connection via Slingplayer software. It works just like your TV, even with a remote. You can have it full screen, in a window or in a neat little vertical banner on either side of your screen.

We have four of them - two in Florida and two in Virginia.

Such cool, techie stuff. And, yes, it does work almost anywhere in the world.

This is the first sock I've finished in over a year. It started out being Colin Andersson's sock recipe, but I switched to a different toe up sock because I didn't want to do my first one on a smaller number of stitches. I just wanted to follow his recipe, so I cast on a sock for Jim, which should fit using Colin's default numbers.

Is there any question why this cat was named "Jade?"

Does she not look like the queen she is, indeed.

Jade has lived with us for one month tonight. She sure has come a long way and it seems like we've always had her.

Can you explain this to me?

The Pittsburgh Steelers won the Super Bowl. For those of my friends in other countries or others who may not know, Pittsburgh is one of the areas of the country where sports reign supreme. Everything seems to come to a stop for sports, at least with a huge portion of the population. A loss by a sports team is a personal loss. Players who play at less than what the fans believe is their best, are ostracized, criticized, ridiculed. A major loss is reason for mourning.

Well, The Steelers won the Super Bowl. Hooray! I'm glad they won. My husband's from Pittsburgh and I've adopted them as my team, along with the Tampa Bay Bucs ('cause that's where I'm from). I watched the game, too. I even bought Jim a championship hat - something I never do.

What bothers me is that some fans feel it's necessary to destroy things when their team WINS! I know people do this in other countries over soccer or other sports, too. That's just crazy! What are these morons thinking? Why does it make it "better" to destroy property, disturb the peace or, otherwise, make a nuisance of yourself in "celebration" of a sports team's win? I wish to point out that not all fans, Steelers or otherwise, do these things. My parents-in-law are extreme Steelers fans and they never have engaged in this kind of behavior. it's the fools that also, I suspect, behave like jackasses at the game, always second guessing the coaches or players. They're the ones who seem to think they could do it better.

I've read of people being trampled at games, both in this country and others. It's just as stupid as the shoppers who'll trample their fellow shoppers so they can save a couple of $$$.

I just don't get it.

Oh, and while I'm at it, why was it necessary to have a two hour delay for school opening in the Pittsburgh area. Yes, I know it was important for the little darlings to watch the beloved Steelers win, but I think it's MORE important that children watch the Presidential elections and there were no late school openings for that even.

Where are the priorities, folks? Whether here or in any other country enjoyment of sports or anything else, for that matter, is a wonderful thing. Being this crazy about it is, well, just moronic!

Two more down - one of which will be a gift.

This one:

is named Jane's Jewels. It's named thus for the buttons, which were part of a swap with Misery Knits. The yarn is the handwoven Woodstock previously posted. The pattern is Seraphine - a small scarf meant to be fastened by two buttons joined together with a short chain. This way, you can change the buttons out any time you want. It's a really quick knit. It took me a couple of days, knitting at odd moments and while doing this:



called Promised Spring. It really is starting to be promising out there. It's still cold as can be, but the daffodils and hyacinths are poking their little green crowns out of the dirt. This scarf, also, took about a day to do. It's made with Prism Yarn's Cool Stuff yarn. If I were to do it again, I'd leave out the darker orange bits. While I was weaving it, they weren't so noticeable.

I'm totally in love with the Woodstock yarn I recently spun from Yasgur's Farm colorway from Happy Hippy fiber. I'm using part of the 425 yards in Seraphine:

That'll leave me with about 250-300 yards. I may see if I can find a mitten or mitt "recipe" for the rest of it and actually have a set. Now, wouldn't that be an oddity for a knitter? We rarely have "sets" of anything. The buttons came from a swap on Misery Knits on Ravelry. As part of my swap, I received a little bag of odd buttons from my swap partner. One of the nice things about this scarf is that the two buttons are made like a French cufflink and you can make dozens of different ones for the same scarf. I love this!

I'm also weaving a scarf for a future gift out of a ball of Prism Cool Stuff I've had for about three years. I bought it (expensive stuff, that) when I began knitting and thought everything novelty was great. This "Stuff" is expensive and comes from a yarn maker in St. Petersburg, Florida (Prism Yarns). It's been sitting on my shelf for all this time, wondering what it was to become. I've started at least four different projects with it but, other than becoming a mobius or a garter stitch scarf, what do you do with one ball of this? Well, this is what it's to be:



The yarn is full of different textures: eyelash yarn, chenille, glitter, and is of a number of fibers, like wool and alpaca and silk. It's all good quality yarn and should make a long lasting scarf. I'm using Debbie Bliss Cashmerino as the warp.

I also managed to dye my fingertips purple today. Yesterday, I dyed this horrible Corriedale fiber this color:


I named it "Treefrog." While it's OK, it's mighty bright. I made a couple of sample yarns out of it and am just not satisfied I'd like anything made out of it by itself. I went to one of the dyeing groups on Ravelry and asked for suggestions. One of them was to combine it with some dark purple yarn as a plied yarn. That seemed like a good idea, so what I'm doing is overdying one of the 5 1/2 oz. pieces of Treefrog and dying a 5 1/2 oz. piece of natural Corriedale in purple. It should make the Treefrog turn a darker green with purple overtones and, of course, the purple would be purple. We'll see how that comes out. In the process, I managed to stick my fingers in the dye solution. I hate gloves and would rather look like I have gangrene than wear them. So, I'll have lovely purple fingers for a couple of days. Jim suggested I could knit one of those safety vests highway repair workers wear. I think that's about all I'd like made with it at this point. I'm hoping the yarn comes out in a color I can call "Rain Forest." We'll see. I'm new to this dyeing stuff.

Lest anyone think I'm more of a "hipster" than I am, I want to set the record straight that I make (ask) Jim to name most of the yarns. I just have a big problem, unless it's a personal yarn, deciding on the names for the yarns. I especially like the name for Satriani. I never paid much attention to poor Joe until Jim kind of submerged me in a whole morning of his work. I really, really like it.

I'm still planning on spinning one called "Starseed Project." Regardless of the fact that the man who got me acquainted with Starseed Project has kind of "bugged out" in a strange way, both on my niece and the band, I like the band. So, they get the yarn when I figure out what it is.

Anyhoo! Thanks to Jim for the ideas for yarn names. My pop education goes on.

The newest rock persona in hand spun yarn: Satriani.

Both bright and smoky, masculine with a feminine touch and strong yet soft. That's Joe Satriani and that's this yarn.

The fiber was Creatively Dyed Yarns' 50/50 Bamboo/Wool roving I purchased from On The Lamb in Staunton. This spun up very quickly into a bulky two-ply. It was a dream to spin and I'd buy more of it in an instant.

The pictures wash the colors out just a bit, but they're accurate hue.

I've got about 150 yards from 4 oz. of roving and that's not bad for a bulky spin. This was an exercise in therapeutic spinning. I have a family member I'm a bit worried about and I just wanted to spin. I let the fiber run through fast and didn't worry a lot about the evenness, although it came out pretty even anyway. I like the amount of variability there is and I didn't overspin the singles, so it turned out to be a very soft yarn.

I have no idea what to make from it. I'm open to suggestions.

Here's the latest hand spun yarn: Woodstock, spun from stretched merino called Yasgur's Farm (the home of Woodstock). This stuff is incredibly soft. The fiber is from Happy Hippy - how appropriate.

I had a devil of a time keeping this fiber even for two reasons:

1. It's so thin that it compresses easily and it's very hard to tell how much fiber is actually in the twist, and
2. The dye causes it to stick to itself.

This little scarf was a one-day wonder of a lark. I bought this yarn a little over a year ago at On the Lamb in Staunton, VA. I remember the colorway is Shakespeare, named after Staunton's Shakespeare Festival, but I don't remember the yarn name. I used to be a lot worse about keeping track of these things than I am today. I'm trying to use up some of my "older" yarns and, so, will be posting a lot of "unknowns."

If Joe or Angel read this and know the yarn manufacturer, I'll be happy to update the post.

Six hours - start of warp to finish!

This scarf was done on the Ashford Knitters Loom at 5 dpi. The yarn is Noro Kochoran, which is wool/silk/angora. I, originally, had three balls of this yarn. I knitted a scarf out of about 1 1/2 balls of it and had these two left. All the balls were of different colorways, but I no longer have the bands. This was a yarn that Jim bought for me when I first started knitting.

Since the yarn is a heavy singles, the fringes like to twist together. It's interesting that they're doing it in pairs and look really neat. I think I'll just let them make their own way in the world.




This yarn has the angora quite more thickly concentrated in some areas than others. It means there are little bits of bunny fiber (I do think it's angora rabbit, not goat) everywhere, but it makes "pools" of it. This was a bit of a challenge to weave, since the singles tended to stick together just a bit in the warp.

frabjous fibers

Well, today the United States of America gets a new President. I suppose President and Mrs. Bush are sighing huge sighs of relief and looking forward to their new circumstances. I do feel sympathy for most Presidents. They go into office, generally, with such high expectations for themselves and for the country. Shortly, they discover that, like every one of the predecessors, they're often hamstrung by the very politics that got them into office in the first place. They can't possibly carry out their campaign promises because of the "checks and balances" (read handcuffs) that are inherent in our government, for better or for worse.

Poor Obama is inheriting a nightmare of economic, political and world issues. He's been built up to super human proportions by so many hopeful citizens. He's smart. He's linguistically facile. He's somewhat inexperienced. He's idealistic. He's "different" from anyone he succeeds. And I hope he succeeds.

In about two years, he'll no longer resemble the happy young man he appears to be today. He'll become stooped under the weight of the office, just like everyone else who's been successful (or unsuccessful, depending on your view) in gaining this office. He may even, at some point, wish the McCain/Palin campaign had been successful.

His kids will be under constant scrutiny and subject to speculation. He can't make a single mistake in his personal life without the entire world jumping in to point out where he's gone wrong or where he's been right.

What an awesome and terrible responsibility this is.

Good luck to you, Mr. Obama. I don't say that with sarcasm or any sense of irony. I do wish you luck. I wish you luck for yourself and for this country.

This: is Maroon 5. What an odd band that is!

This is two ply corrie
dale cream roving that's about fingering or sock weight and that is what it shall become.

I used Cushing's Perfection Dye in the Garnet color. It really does come out looking like garnets - amazing!

This is yarn I had forgotten I'd spun. I spun it several months ago. It was one of the earliest fibers I bought and the first finer weight two ply I'd managed. While it's not the softest yarn in the world, it's not scratchy and should make excellent socks. I have another pound of this yarn, so it's possible I'll spin some more this way and dye it either a different color or a different shade of the same color and combine them together. We'll see.

What's with this crazy cat? Jade likes to jump up and play in the water from the sink faucets. She also likes to jump into the tub as soon as someone is finished with their shower. Does she feel this is the only way she can get her paws clean?

I forgot my camera would do this! I made a teensy tiny little movie of the snow:

Snow at My Front Door

Please note, these are my observations, opinions and frustrations. This is an issue of "Who is the customer here and who gets to decide what quality of product is acceptable for a particular price?"

I wrote to the yarn company (frabjous fibers in Vermont, USA - added at the request of some readers. Since the I am stating only fact and have the paper trail, I feel confident I'm not breaking any "rules.") regarding the problems I had with five breaks in one ball of their yarn. I received a response telling me that I should, in essence, overlook the issues because their workers are so poor they can't afford not to sell a ball of yarn to the company and that they have hand spindles and that's why it happens. What kind of logic is this?

Oh, and she offered to send me more yarn. Doesn't this take even more money from the mouths of those poor second world people who are spinning it? And this is supposed to make me feel good?

I told her to keep the yarn and buy a worker a good meal. Not only did she not address the issue, she made certain I will NOT be buying any of the company's yarns again. I suspect this company is making a pretty good amount of money on each $15 ball of yarn it sells - probably far more than the poor spinner. Maybe they should send more of that money to the spinners. Maybe they should invest in charkas so the spinners could make the yarn faster and better. Maybe purchasers of this yarn would be willing to pay $1 more a ball to enable this. It's my experience that fiber artisans are a generous lot and would be willing to, for the most part, pay the difference.

Now, I'm wondering how many of these handspun/hand dyed specialty yarn companies are doing exactly the same thing. It doesn't make me comfortable.

I'm in the happy circumstance of being able to pay a pretty hefty price for yarn, if I like it enough. I know that not everyone is in that position. But, that being said, it's the way of all things. There are some gorgeous yarns out there that sell for $75 and $100 and $150 a ball. I don't feel comfortable paying that much for yarn, so I don't - but SOMEBODY is or the companies wouldn't be still making it. So, there's a yarn for everyone. It's no different than some people having a steak budget and others a hamburger budget. It's also a matter of choices. All this being said, I'm the one footing the bill and I'm the one who gets to decide if the yarn is up to my "snuff," or not.

I can't change all the world. I can't stop all the opportunistic business practices occurring in third world countries. All I can do is make changes where I can see the injustices. So, I will buy other yarn. I may be buying other yarn made in the very same way and, if I find out about it, I'll change my buying practices again.

I may end up buying only commercially spun yarns and spinning my own specialty yarns. I won't be paying someone else 5 cents an hour to spin it for me, though, and then selling it for $30 an hour.

I don't know why this is bothering me so much, but it is. I've refrained from mentioning the yarn company again because I feel so strongly about this.

Maybe I'll change my position later. If you see this article disappear, you'll know I've reconsidered. I just don't know how I can garner any enjoyment from the near slave labor of another human being AND KNOW ABOUT IT. Maybe I'd be better to hide my head in the sand.

The owner wrote back to tell me how these poor people are used to being poor and so, their quality control isn't as good as it might be. They're, after all, used to being poor and conditions being bad. So, I suppose that absolves the yarn company of having its OWN quality control. Also, it says, in effect, that poor people can only make poor stuff. Give me a break.

She also informs me that, "Hey lady we're the good guys." As opposed to what? AND, she's writing to me on her HP computer, made a country other than ours by underpaid workers. I wonder if she's aware that not all technology workers in other countries ARE poorly paid, nor are they poor. The silicon is imported more cheaply into some of the eastern countries than it is here, raw materials more readily available and, therefore, its cheaper to get them made there. Also, don't call me "lady."

Now, this company says they're a "fair trade" company, meaning people are paid a "fair wage." I wonder what a "fair wage" is considered to be?

I may have the company wrong, but the attitude toward a customer who, ultimately, pays the worker in Nepal sucks. Even if I'm wrong, how does anyone get off calling a customer "lady" in the tone that was implied by her reply? Also, I don't care to be "educated" by a U.S. yarn company that feels it's more important to promote the "fair wage" of a woman in a country that routinely undervalues female production. She may very well be WORSE off for spinning this yarn. I've heard stories from people I know from third world countries where the woman gets beaten (often by family members) for not producing ENOUGH product or for not finishing what the males in the household felt was more important. AND, there are a lot of folks here at home who are undervalued and underpaid, as well.

This woman also informed me it only costs about ten US dollars to buy a charka when I suggested a way of helping would be to supply them at about 100 US dollars. Now, tell me, how do you judge the "inequity" in pay or level of poverty when someone in Nepal can buy for ten US dollars what I have to pay 100 US dollars? So, if she gets 50 cents an hour, is that the equivalent of five US dollars an hour? And is everything else in Nepal the same depressed price to purchase?

What I do know is there are women here in the mountains and in the ghettos of cities and who are victims of hurricanes or other natural disasters who could, certainly, benefit from the charity being provided to those in Nepal.

In my opinion, until we get our own house in order, we shouldn't be meddling in the houses of others.

THIS is what makes living in Virginia special. Snow storms like this are rare in recent years, but when they arrive, oh, my, it's beautiful!

Our new roof even got to try out its snow rails. We bought a new metal roof for our house last March or April. It helped with insulation and, sometimes, you can hear the rain hitting the roof. This house is so well insulated that the sounds are, generally, muffled, but when it's warm enough to have the screens on the doors, it's lovely.

I tried to arrange the slide show in a 360 degree round of the views from our windows. As I sit here, the snow is falling thickly and the cinder and salt trucks are rumbling by on the roads. In Marion, they start salting the roads at the first snow flake. Roads in this town are passable faster than anywhere else in the country after a snow. I'd bet my money on it. Oh, my, but this is pretty.

I don't like the way the Flickr slideshow works on the blog, so use this link: Snowy Day Slideshow. This shows much better, is larger, and just plain prettier.



There's one other aspect of this beautiful snow, though. It's been extremely (record breaking) cold here this past weekend. Its also been a bit rainy for the past day. As a result, the wires do this:

It's kind of cool looking, but beware! All that extra weight can cause the wires to fall - not a good thing.

If the winters here were like today every day, I'd never leave. Of course, I'd probably starve and freeze and suffer from fiber withdrawal.

This scarf is made out of frabjous fibers Banana Silk Yarn for the weft and Moonlight ribbon from Judi. The idea was to make a scarf to go with an acid green loose tee I'd made a couple of years ago. The ribbon has tiny black edges with bits of gold metal flecks. I wish you could see how that glimmers under lights.

The frabjous fibers banana silk was a bit of a disappointment, not in its looks or fiber, but in the fact there were five - FIVE - breaks in the yarn. This yarn wasn't all that inexpensive ($15 for 160 yards) and that's just unacceptable for knitting yarn. Since I was weaving it, it wasn't as big a problem, but it was still annoying. I wrote to the company telling them I liked the yarn and color and fiber, but that I wouldn't be inclined to purchase it for knitting, since there are similar yarns to be had.

It's my hope they will make some adjustments in quality control so knitting can also be a pleasure with this yarn.

All in all, I'm very happy with the scarf. I wove it on the Ashford Knitter's Loom with a 5 dpi heddle and loose beating.

I keep yakking about how Jasper the Cat lives in an ice chest on our side porch. Thinking that it might be hard to visualize and knowing that my readers would be unbearably curious about the logistics of such a house, I decided I'd photograph the dear kitty having breakfast by his house. Of course, I take the food right to his door on weather such as today's. Other than taking care of normal cat ablutions, he doesn't even need to go 2 steps from his door.

As you can see, the blankets are banked up toward the prevailing wind. I didn't do that. Jasper did it! I went in one day and re-folded all his bedclothes neatly. When I came back an hour later, he'd banked them up again. That's no stupid cat! In addition to the blanket pieces, there are bits of old woolens I'd knitted. At the bottom, there's a folded up towel and a piece of extra styro insulation under the whole thing. The blanket on the top is for his fair weather lounging. It's a bit messed up, at the moment.

If you have never tried to cut a hole into a styrofoam ice chest with a dremel, you haven't met one of the most delightful challenges of the "do-it-yourself" world. That stuff is THICK. and SMELLY. and MESSY.

Anyway, Jasper seems to like his humble abode. I saw him, earlier, marking his territory around the house after breakfast.

Well, here are the beginnings:

This is the pure version of the Colin's Sock Knit Along:



It takes a fair amount of time because this is a smaller gauge than I've done before. It's an easy sock to do so far, though. I'm using all of Colin's stitch counts and it looks like it's going to fit Jim very well.

This one is a combined version of Colin's Sock (the toe) with the pattern for Leyburn Socks from Pepperknit. I switched yarn for this one from my previous post. The Socks that Rock yarn is more expensive than I wanted to use to try out a pattern. I could always frog it, but I hate the little squiggles ripping makes in such a nice yarn. I'm using a Knitpicks sock yarn, instead. The Yarn Harlot has been making these and remarked at how quickly it knits up. I thought, "Yeah, sure. The Yarn Harlot can knit a pair of socks in two days anyway!" Amazingly, though, they're fairly quick, even for me.


Even with knitting two different new patterns at once, it's going fast. I'm using a size larger needle and I think the yarn is just a bit thicker, too. I'm with the Harlot. I love this pattern.

OK. Two of my heroes have gone and done it, and the whole thing has been complicated by husband.

I started Colin Andersson's Yahoo Group toe up sock with the Andersson heel yesterday. Here's the yarn:

It's KnitPicks Essential Tweed in Inca Gold colorway. They're going to be plain vanilla so I can learn the toe and Colin's heel.

Then, I read the Yarn Harlot's blog and saw this sock (Leyburn) made from some really busy yarn and I thought, "Gee, I have some really busy yarn that'd be great for that pattern. I want to make this sock. Oh, yes, here's the yarn for that:



It's Socks that Rock in Pirate's Booty.

I was sitting there last night, bemoaning the fact I hadn't knit ANY socks in months on end and that there were two, count them TWO, different sock patterns I wanted to do. Jim, unkind jester that he is, suggested I could knit them all at once! That's four, FOUR individual socks.

So, that's exactly what I'm doing. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

I used up the little bit of fingering weight yarn I made from the sample of yak/silk previously posted. It took almost exactly the yardage I had. It's a great little pattern from Irene McKisson posted on the designerknits.com site.

The picot hem is especially nice - not too fussy, but it adds just a bit to the design.

This just under 30 gms of 100% Tussah Silk 2-ply spun on the Minstrel.

Name: Gold City after the Gold City Gospel Group. The coin is a dime.

This stuff is soft, soft, soft. I have about 45 yards. Wonder what it'll be?

Yesterday morning, we woke up to this:

At 2:00 p.m., THIS is what we saw:




Amazing, huh?

There's much to be said for the exuberance of youth. Little critters are so cute, whether they're human of animal. There's always the delight of learning and trying new things and the laughs of the less than successful endeavors.

BUT - sometimes little ones can be really, really, reeeeaaaaallllllyyyyyyy hard to live with. How many times have my legs been lacerated by a rambunctious kitten trying to climb them like trees? How many dollars have been spent replacing shredded upholstery? How many hardwood floors have been ruined by the accidents of little pups and kitties? LOTS!

Little Jade has reminded me how it makes sense, sometimes, to forego the joys of kittenhood or puppyhood for the calm and mature companionship of an older animal.

Having Jade move in has been a big reminder to me of that. She's always there for a nice pet or tummy rub. She's like a sedative. Her soft purring and warm and soft little body are just intoxicating.

It may be that she's an especially adaptable cat, she seems absolutely grateful.

Here's another photo for your viewing pleasure. She seems to like that corner of the sofa.

This is Jade:

She's the newest member of our little pet group. She came to us from Promised Land Animal Rescue, a no kill shelter that rescues everything from gerbils to horses.

Jade's about 4 years old and was left behind by her former owner. What a sweet cat! Except for the fact she's exploring every corner of the house, she acts like she's been here forever. She sleeps on the bed, sits on laps, turns over for belly rubs and unbelievably (for a cat), she listens!

We don't know how she came to have the name, Jade, but it could either be that she has gorgeous jade green eyes or that she appears to be partly Siamese. Her eyes have that odd slant and her tail looks like a Siamese cat's tail. She's not very vocal, but she's very graceful and athletic.

She's also very skinny. At Promised Land, she was overwhelmed by the number of dogs and cats and, I suspect, had to fight to get food. I think she'll be a gorgeous girl when she fills out and gets settled.

About 25 years ago, Jim designed and had built a really cool house. Even after 25 years, it still looks like it's new. This is the one he built:

The house below was built by the same builder and was inspired by Jim's house. The roofline is a little different and the number of trees on the lot certainly enhance the design.



Inside these houses, there's a sunken living room, eat in kitchen, laundry, bedroom and bath on the first floor with a covered patio and screened lanai on the first floor and two bedrooms and a bath upstairs. In some places the ceiling goes all the way to the roofline. We've toyed with building one of these houses, with a few improvements.

We've also considered a timber frame house, a log cabin, renovating a farmhouse, a condo, and nothing. Who knows what we'll end up doing.

This fiber is some beautiful soft 100% silk from the silk sampler. I'm going to start this stuff tonight and see how it spins up. For anyone who's just starting out spinning, I highly recommend doing this - not too great an investment for a lot of learning.

Jim got me a couple of samplers to try spinning. One of them is a luxury sampler pack and it contained the fiber from which the yarn below was spun. It's a blend of silk and yak. I've named it "Boots Randolph" (you know - Yakety Sax).

This stuff started out really hard to spin. It's so soft and fine and the fibers are pretty darned short. It took me quite awhile to get used to it, but it really is a nice fiber. It's incredibly soft yarn, about fingering weight and a nice soft grayish tan. I'd make more of this, if I had the fiber. I had one ounce and it made about 33 yards. That's enough to trim something. Or, I could make an iPod cozy out of it. You couldn't ask for anything softer.

Between the spinning and the weaving, it's been ages since I've finished any knit item. Here's one, at last:

This is a neck warmer made with the leftover ball of yarn from a scarf I made for Jim. I bought the button at a local fabric shop in Wytheville called Sew What Fabrics.