THWACK
I'm having a pretty good day so far. How's about you guys?
I woke up around 10, and chatted with Pyrite. Then I finished reading Devil in the White City, which was very good. (I'm too much an academic to not be a bit skeptical of popular history and the choices made by the author, but it was very well researched and the choices made were plausible. More importantly to the enjoyability, it was exceptionally readable and just plain a good read. I'm interested in the author's other books now.)
I've spun quite a bit of fiber (into singles) today as well. I had bought this fiber called "ember" a loooong while ago, but when it arrived it looked nothing like the picture on Etsy. I was disappointed, but figured monitors make for different color experiences. I also felt that it didn't look like it was described, either. (Described as dark grey and red, and it looked like brown with streaks of red.) So it sat for a long while until yesterday when I thought, heck, I'll spin this up and figure out something. Buuuut, it turns out it spins up beautifully as ... dark grey and red. Go figure. So that's happy making. When I'm done it'll be a 3ply (two plies of this fiber, which is superwash merino in differing thicknesses, and one ply of a bright red cotton).
I have also soaked and hung up four new skeins of yarn. (Unfortunately it's not nearly as hot as usual today. Figures-- I need the heat to dry my yarn and it slacks off. What the hey? Why is it only 97 degrees? What happened to my 110?) I'm not sure which of the skeins I'll sell and/or how. I'm quite pleased, though, with one that's a ply of camel and a ply of dark brown suri alpaca. The grey suir/huacaya alpaca blend plied with silk looks great-- the differences in thickness (which was intentional) has allowed for a nice halo to start on the alpaca strand. However, I didn't have a lot of luck with the silk (it was more or less my first time spinning from a silk hankie. The single was fine, but the plying was difficult) I think it's really nice yarn, but I'm worried because there's one break in the skein (knotted) and a few breaks of the silk ply. I'll probably sell it with that warning and a deep discount. There's also a skein of camel plied with spun-from-the-lock wool, which looks awesome, but its only 59 yards. It's hard to sell the small skeins, y'know? The last skein is also camel, but plied with the last of the wool/soy blend from the previous skeins, and is only about 60 yards, too. I might collect wee skeins like this and sell them as a set. We'll see.
Anyway, some of those skeins needed thwacking, which is precisely what it sounds like-- hitting them against a hard surface while wet. The only such surface currently on my balcony is the thick part of the balcony railing. But since the railing is hollow metal, it makes a ringing sound. My neighbors must think I'm insane. One guy was walking buy, 3 floors down, while staring up at me. I smiled. He didn't ask, so I didn't explain.
Oh! And my spot of good luck! I won this angora/alpaca batt!! I'm very excited. It looks beautiful. I love spinning alpaca. An angora/alpaca blend should be heavenly. (If you scroll down a bit, you can see the angora bunny from which some of the fiber comes!) Not only is the batt beautiful, but I never win anything, so it was awesome to find out that I won!! Woooo!! ::happy dance:: Is verra cool.
I'm going to try and finish my grading for the summer session now. It'd be nice to be able to submit those grades and be done. I have to spend a chunk of time tomorrow working on my fall syllabus, too, since it's due by 5pm Monday. (Eek.) The only downside to this is that I'm not sure where I put the book I'm using for the Fall class, which will make finishing the syllabus difficult... So I may be going into the office on Monday to work on it. Hope not.
I have a puzzle pirate date at 5pm (and by date I mean "appointment" not anything romantic.) Also on PP tonight, one of my friends is going to teach me about navigating/battle navigating. I hope to finish at least the last ply of my newest yarn today, too, maybe even ply all three together. Wheee.
Tomorrow there's more Supernatural with Flurije and A. We might even finish season 2. (!!) Which would put is more than halfway through the series, since season 3 is short. I'll be working on ami!Mary at that point. I'm most worried about her hair, though.
I have no intention of leaving my house today, though. Do you think that's bad? Hm...
I wonder if I should take up dying my own fiber? I didn't really feel drawn to it 'til lately...I think I'd rather have a drum carder with which to blend fibers.
Hm. I also need to take more yarn!chester pictures this weekend, so as to ensure enough scenes to fill the coming week.
I really ought to clean. My place looks like a very small tornado went through. Ugh.
My parents bought a red Lexus yesterday (apparently.) Both halves of that description seem really weird to me. (They kinda wanted a Prius but you still have to order them, evidently. And more importantly, they're too small for my mom. My mom's a very small woman, actually; it's not like she needs a large car. But she has a mental block about small cars. She thinks my Jetta is too small. When I rented a car to drive in VA this past May, my dad set it up-- I expected a compact, the cheapest. Nope, she didn't think a small car was safe, and so I had the next size. I'm kind of surprised she doesn't drive an SUV--
Oh crap, I have no idea what kind of Lexus they got. Doesn't Lexus make SUVs? I can't see them spending that kind of money, to be honest, but still... No, they wouldn't have...
Anyway, that's all the news here. I'm still not thinking about the sleep study, which is why I haven't responded to comments yet. I will. Later.
Oh hey, there's a fudgesicle in the freezer with my name on it.
I woke up around 10, and chatted with Pyrite. Then I finished reading Devil in the White City, which was very good. (I'm too much an academic to not be a bit skeptical of popular history and the choices made by the author, but it was very well researched and the choices made were plausible. More importantly to the enjoyability, it was exceptionally readable and just plain a good read. I'm interested in the author's other books now.)
I've spun quite a bit of fiber (into singles) today as well. I had bought this fiber called "ember" a loooong while ago, but when it arrived it looked nothing like the picture on Etsy. I was disappointed, but figured monitors make for different color experiences. I also felt that it didn't look like it was described, either. (Described as dark grey and red, and it looked like brown with streaks of red.) So it sat for a long while until yesterday when I thought, heck, I'll spin this up and figure out something. Buuuut, it turns out it spins up beautifully as ... dark grey and red. Go figure. So that's happy making. When I'm done it'll be a 3ply (two plies of this fiber, which is superwash merino in differing thicknesses, and one ply of a bright red cotton).
I have also soaked and hung up four new skeins of yarn. (Unfortunately it's not nearly as hot as usual today. Figures-- I need the heat to dry my yarn and it slacks off. What the hey? Why is it only 97 degrees? What happened to my 110?) I'm not sure which of the skeins I'll sell and/or how. I'm quite pleased, though, with one that's a ply of camel and a ply of dark brown suri alpaca. The grey suir/huacaya alpaca blend plied with silk looks great-- the differences in thickness (which was intentional) has allowed for a nice halo to start on the alpaca strand. However, I didn't have a lot of luck with the silk (it was more or less my first time spinning from a silk hankie. The single was fine, but the plying was difficult) I think it's really nice yarn, but I'm worried because there's one break in the skein (knotted) and a few breaks of the silk ply. I'll probably sell it with that warning and a deep discount. There's also a skein of camel plied with spun-from-the-lock wool, which looks awesome, but its only 59 yards. It's hard to sell the small skeins, y'know? The last skein is also camel, but plied with the last of the wool/soy blend from the previous skeins, and is only about 60 yards, too. I might collect wee skeins like this and sell them as a set. We'll see.
Anyway, some of those skeins needed thwacking, which is precisely what it sounds like-- hitting them against a hard surface while wet. The only such surface currently on my balcony is the thick part of the balcony railing. But since the railing is hollow metal, it makes a ringing sound. My neighbors must think I'm insane. One guy was walking buy, 3 floors down, while staring up at me. I smiled. He didn't ask, so I didn't explain.
Oh! And my spot of good luck! I won this angora/alpaca batt!! I'm very excited. It looks beautiful. I love spinning alpaca. An angora/alpaca blend should be heavenly. (If you scroll down a bit, you can see the angora bunny from which some of the fiber comes!) Not only is the batt beautiful, but I never win anything, so it was awesome to find out that I won!! Woooo!! ::happy dance:: Is verra cool.
I'm going to try and finish my grading for the summer session now. It'd be nice to be able to submit those grades and be done. I have to spend a chunk of time tomorrow working on my fall syllabus, too, since it's due by 5pm Monday. (Eek.) The only downside to this is that I'm not sure where I put the book I'm using for the Fall class, which will make finishing the syllabus difficult... So I may be going into the office on Monday to work on it. Hope not.
I have a puzzle pirate date at 5pm (and by date I mean "appointment" not anything romantic.) Also on PP tonight, one of my friends is going to teach me about navigating/battle navigating. I hope to finish at least the last ply of my newest yarn today, too, maybe even ply all three together. Wheee.
Tomorrow there's more Supernatural with Flurije and A. We might even finish season 2. (!!) Which would put is more than halfway through the series, since season 3 is short. I'll be working on ami!Mary at that point. I'm most worried about her hair, though.
I have no intention of leaving my house today, though. Do you think that's bad? Hm...
I wonder if I should take up dying my own fiber? I didn't really feel drawn to it 'til lately...I think I'd rather have a drum carder with which to blend fibers.
Hm. I also need to take more yarn!chester pictures this weekend, so as to ensure enough scenes to fill the coming week.
I really ought to clean. My place looks like a very small tornado went through. Ugh.
My parents bought a red Lexus yesterday (apparently.) Both halves of that description seem really weird to me. (They kinda wanted a Prius but you still have to order them, evidently. And more importantly, they're too small for my mom. My mom's a very small woman, actually; it's not like she needs a large car. But she has a mental block about small cars. She thinks my Jetta is too small. When I rented a car to drive in VA this past May, my dad set it up-- I expected a compact, the cheapest. Nope, she didn't think a small car was safe, and so I had the next size. I'm kind of surprised she doesn't drive an SUV--
Oh crap, I have no idea what kind of Lexus they got. Doesn't Lexus make SUVs? I can't see them spending that kind of money, to be honest, but still... No, they wouldn't have...
Anyway, that's all the news here. I'm still not thinking about the sleep study, which is why I haven't responded to comments yet. I will. Later.
Oh hey, there's a fudgesicle in the freezer with my name on it.