Wednesday, May 16, 2007

It has been a busy time over the weekend until today. Last night I forgot my meds again and really felt it today. Other days when I am not so stressed I can coast but we've been out and about and therefore I have lower reserves than normal. I got 2 quotes on renovating our 1970's avocado green bathroom with vomit green tiles, and hated both tradesmen almost on sight. Friday I went out to price bathroom fittings at the local hardware super store and had a severe case of sticker shock. Both major bathroom supply houses were having sales on the weekend so on Saturday we tootled off and got a toilet and vanity unit for about half the price of what was offered elsewhere. I never even thought about ebay until I wanted to send a photo to my sister and found out we got a good deal even by ebay. On Sunday it was off to the mall where I was gifted with a watch. I used to be a serious watchaholic and I have about 8 watches (all battery dead). but I have developed an arthritis sensitive point on the inside of my left wrist and every watch sits on it. The watch I got is nothing special but it has a very loose bracelet so it doesn't sit on the sensitive spot. Now I won't lose track of time in the stacks or out and about. I also bought 2 new pairs of jeans that are 4-5 sizes smaller than I was wearing this time last year. Am I pleased with myself? You betcha. Monday the carpet layers came and I have lovely new carpet in my bedroom but I haven't moved all the (knitting) books and magazines back in yet.

When I turned up for my Bowen therapy today there were 6 huge trash bags full of alpaca waiting for me. Whoopee! I can hardly wait to get into this and learn all about blending fibres etc. I got a box from Amazon with 4 knitting books which I will talk about in detail in another entry, a set of KnitPicks interchangeable circular needles from Greta's who is (as far as I know) the only Australian dealer in Knitpicks needles since they refuse to ship overseas, and a package from the Woolery with some weaving supplies (coned cotton), a WPI tool, and some gorgeous hand-dyed Optim. Since Optim is a product developed in Australia whereby a wool fiber is magically lengthened and stretched until the result feels like silk, it seems a bit coals to Newcastle to buy it from the US but it was on sale and hand-dyed and I couldn't resist. It is beautiful and I had a very hard time choosing a colourway from what they had.

I have almost finished combing the last of the filthy fleece and of course this is the nicest of the lot, altho it has a bit more lanolin than I prefer to spin with. I know there are people who love to spin in the grease and that is how my first spinning teacher tried to teach me but I just don't like it, it will gum up your drum carder, and if you don't have long enough locks to flick card, you really have to card it somehow. These locks are close to 4" with beautiful crimp and are soft light grey. Now if only the woolgrower had coated his sheep, the fleece would have fetched a lot more than $8 and I wouldn't have so much sweat equity invested in it to produce 2 skeins of soft as silk yarn out of it.

1 comment:

Donna (Random Knits) said...

There's actually a few aussie dealers for the Knitpicks options needles now. www.yarnsonline.com.au has the sets and some of the smaller size fixed circs and DPNS. Donni (http://donyalestuff.wordpress.com/knit-picks/) has all the additional bits and pieces for the sets as well as the DPNS and fixed circulars.

Donna
Random Knits