Spinning and Snow

Today was a very snowy day. I debated whether or not to go to spinning, but felt the need to get out of the house after three days of sickness. All the way to Barb's house I kept wondering if I should turn back because the roads were very slippery and snowy. I persevered though, and prayed that it wouldn't snow so much in the few hours we were there that I wouldn't be able to get out of the driveway. When I win the lottery (of course, I would have to buy a lottery ticket first) I am going to buy a car that works well in the snow. That cannot be said of the Mercury Grand Marquis which I drive. It is a lovely car, huge, comfortable, great sound system, and was free, but would be much more at home in sunny California than snowy northern New York.

Getting out of the car and carrying my things into the house, I managed to spill a 20 ounce cup of Dunkin' Donuts coffee all over my pants. I was ready to turn around and go home, but Barb convinced me to stay by offering to wash my jeans for me. That's the first time in a very long time anyone has washed clothes for me. Barb also made a fantastic peach cheese cake, the consumption of which made me glad I had decided to stay. So I sat wrapped in an afghan and did my spinning. I am spinning some Angel Knoll Alpacas' fiber. It's awesome, brown and rust, and very soft. I am planning to use it in the Fair Isle sweater I want to knit using mostly natural colored fibers. Here are some of the alpacas from Angel's.


When I arrived home I discovered two boxes on my front porch. One from Amazon and one containing fiber I had ordered. Upon opening the box of fiber, I immediately had to put some through the drum carder and blend it with some of my hand dyed fiber. This is so much fun, this drum carding. It is another awesome way to play with color and make colors of fiber which would be impossible to create any other way. I would show you a picture, but my camera was upstairs, and the fiber was downstairs, and once I came upstairs, I wasn't going back down. Perhaps tomorrow we can arrange a photo shoot for the batt.

The Amazon box contained a book I have been eyeing for a while called In Sheep's Clothing-A Handspinner's Guide to Wool. I want to increase my knowledge of different breeds of sheep and their wool's characteristics, and this book seemed like a good starting place. I also had ordered Artisan Bread in Five Minutes A Day. When Tim was home at Christmas he made us some delicious bread to have with our Christmas stew using a recipe from this book. He bought lots of bread flour and yeast because he thought I should be making bread as well. So I have the flour, the yeast and the recipes. I guess there's no excuse not to make bread now. If it really only takes five minutes a day, then I don't really have any excuses not to do it. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

And in conclusion, here is a picture of my feet and snow. My children mock me for the pictures I take of feet, both my own and others. I think some day I will have a gallery showing photographs of feet, and it will make me rich and famous. And my children will be sorry that they mocked me.