Snowstorm Files, Day 5

Day 5 of the snowstorm brings this: MORE SNOW.

School is closed (for the kids) through the end of the week. Friday was scheduled to be a teacher professional day (aka "training") in the first place, and we've been instructed to check back in to the website after 4 on Thursday (I think) to see if we will need to report. My guess is yes, since it's just us adults, but that's okay by me.

I finally made it out of the house today. I'd been leery because my sister and dad reported messy roads, but enough was enough and I went for it. Since my ex, who has the same model car I do, made it in to take The Boy to dinner last night, I figured I'd be okay. We won't mention that he got stuck on a hill, and had to go back and take the "smart" route out of the neighborhood or anything. I made it free and clear. We stopped by the post office and tried to go to the library, which was closed. A stop by McDonalds finished our run, and now we feel much, much better.

Good thing, too, because it's now snowing again. There's another storm upon us which will bring mainly snow, but has a chance of sleet and freezing rain as well. In all, we expect maybe 15 more inches and lost of wind. Whoa. We're praying that the power stays on, but if worst comes to worse, we'll hunker down in the basement/den with good ole' PopPop and his woodburning stove.

Today was momentous in another way - I finished the wheel. Here she is in her glory:



Not the best picture in the fading light, so here's a better picture of the wheel portion of the staining.



That's when (I feel) I had really gotten the hang of it. Thank goodness, too, because I was actually not too happy with some of the pieces - there are a few drips and 'runs.' But the wheel? Perfect (if I do say so myself)!

Everything is in working order, and I even spun long-draw style pain free to test her out.



This is some of the stuff I've been dyeing during the snow - I blended a bit of the lime green and brown with my handcards a couple times, and got a good blend. I think the brown/blue will be fabulous. My earlier thoughts of blending this romney with some of the lincoln locks I received are quickly dissolving, though - the romney is so very easy to spin and very, very soft! YUM!

:O)

Cabin Fever?

Okay, so we are on Day 4 of the snowstorm saga, and I'm getting a bit bored. I have plenty to do here at my house, it's just not stuff I wanna do! LOL

Regardless, I did go ahead and tackle my bedroom today. I always seem to leave that for last since the mess inconveniences no one but me, but it's time. I'm finding that doing my yoga really helps out my back/hip situation, and my space is being encroached upon since I refuse to put my laundry away! I much prefer leaving it in a stack on top of the "off-season" clothes boxes in the corner, and that's what gives me the overflow/lack of yoga space. The room just ain't big enough for unnecessary piles!

Yesterday, my sister and I got LOTS of dyeing done. She really takes to dyeing, and found the easter egg colors to be intriguing - she kept pulling out more fiber and yarn and asking what was next, even though we'd run out of containers to dye the new stuff in. In all, though, we tried all methods of dyeing - microwave and stove top, easter egg dyes and food coloring (the food coloring was really, really interesting, and very controlled - you know exactly what color you are getting, and the placement was easy peasy!

Here a picture, but it's kinda horrible. The drying rack sits right in front of the oor in the basement, which has windows, and it's extremely bright in there right now!!



My main goal yesterday was to get lots of the blue, denim, and brown done (and that's what you see here), because I'm thinking they'll be nice colors to blend together on my hand cards. What do you think?

I've washed and dyed almost the whole Romney fleece now (one wash-bag full is in my tub now, waiting on more vinegar), and I'm hoping for a good amount of yarn to come of it!

Tomorrow is another day. Another day OFF that is. School's been canceled already, and there will be another Winter storm in the afternoon/evening, so I'm thinking I know what Wednesday will look like as well. With that said, I gotta go make my kid do something OTHER than watch Phineas and Ferb! See ya!

:O)

Snowstorm Files

How about some updates on the snowstorm, Maryland style?? This should be funny. This area CAN'T. HANDLE. Snow. At all.

Lots of schools in Virginia closed for the day as of last night - when a pretty "official" say was on for the snowstorm happening outside now. The weathermen are listing this as a "crippling" snowstorm for the DC area - it's just "disruptive" for outlying areas. And by areas, I mean whole states.

My county released schools 3 hours early. They didn't state this until 5:30 this morning. That meant my school was released at 10:45. We'll talk later about how many of my guys actually showed up. When we dismissed at 10:45, it was not snowing where we are. The snow started at about 11:30-ish, and it's now going strong.

Government offices (remember, I'm just outside D.C.) were on an unscheduled leave policy. Basically - if you have leave available to take, don't feel as though you have to come to work. Take a day of leave - no biggie. Now, they'll probably close the offices later on anyway (if they haven't already), but they rarely shut down unless things are just frozen over!

I'll keep you updated on the snow's progress and the reactions of people to this. I can already tell you that if you just happened to run out of bread, milk, eggs, or toilet paper anytime in the last 24 hours, or the next 2, you're *&^% out of luck. There probably is none in any store, anywhere.

That's how we do.

And, since I also got the box of fleece that I was expecting . . . you can expect "washie" updates as well. I'm about to go upstairs to wash the first bagful now . . .

:O)

And Another One On The Way

So, Yesterday, I had a day off with The Boy. The reason? 3 inches of snow on the ground (which had melted off the roads and sidewalks by about 9:00 in the morning. Oy.

Here's the backyard in it's snowy glory, though. Beautiful.

Tomorrow, I expect an early dismissal (The Boy's school has already said they'll be closed) because yet ANOTHER snowstorm (this time, a "real" one) is on it's way late tomorrow morning, and it's supposed to turn out to be a big bear by early evening, and will continue to be so until sometime on Saturday. So, yet another snowed in weekend, and that's fine by me.

I spent a good part of the day taking my new wheel apart in order to get it stained/finished. I'm going the easy route and using "Polyshades" from Minwax, which is a stain and polyurethane all in one. That way, I don't have to go back over it with a clear coat once I'm happy with the color, which is "Pecan Satin." It will have a bit of a rosy brown to it, but not dark red cherry or anything like that. Should be somewhat natural, but not yellowish or plain old brown. Those were two colors I just wanted to avoid, but which seemed to be everywhere at good ole Home Depot.



There's the lovely all taken apart. I'm staining it bit by bit due to lack of space to spread out with some paint/stain-like materials. I can't guarantee that the four-legged friends will leave things alone while they're unsupervised, so I've got a couple pieces on a TV tray in my little living room, and I'll continue this way until she's finished! I'll hold off on the peeks at the color until I have it back together, though - a nice, dramatic before and after would be nice, right?

Now, I promised to show the process I've been going through for the BFL/Cotswold fleece, so here goes:


Remember this cute guy? He's holding the box of dirty fleece. I divvied it up with two other spinners at my spin group shortly after this picture was taken. I came home with about 2 pounds, or 32 ounces.

To start, pull of some large bits in preparation to wash small amounts at a time - REALLY hot water, and some Dawn dish liquid (takes out the grease/lanolin).



I do it in a bucket like this - usually the first time in the hot water with Dawn, the second is with just plain hot water (I use one kettle of boiling water from the stove, and then fill the rest of the bucket with the hottest tap water I can get), then another rinse or two with hot, hot water right from the tap, to try to get the rest of the soap out. When I remembered, I also put some Unicorn Fiber Rinse in the very last rinse, as a softener, but I didn't really need it with this fleece. It's very lovely!

The salad spinner is to spin the excess water out of the fleece without squeezing, which could cause some felting (it is really, really hot, after all).

Then, you wind up with a nice, lovely pile of CLEAN fleece. I removed the brown bits you see above, and I'll see if I can get by without them. This fleece was relatively clean, though - I went from 32 ounces to about 24 ounces, so only about 6 ounces of dirt/grease came out in the wash.

Spin up some lovely singles with the hand-carded rolags (I'll get pictures of those steps as soon as I'm able to do all that stuff again - I'm still resting, icing, and stretching my poor trigger thumb. Triggering less, but still a bit uncomfortable.

So, clear as mud? Who's ready to become a spinner?

:O)