Amusments Too

Glad I nipped out yesterday morning and got my hair cut and a few groceries while the getting was good. It was really windy again in the afternoon with lashings of rain and yes, we have some snow today! Not much but enough to bring on the winter wonderland feeling. I have to teach a Beginner Spinning class tonight (assuming my students can make it in) so T and I will slog over to the shop later today to do some wheel maintenance. The poor things are really suffering from alternately being used and abused and neglected. They need a little TLC. That’s not “tender loving care”; it’s T and L Care! Even better.

Today I got bored with all the Yahoo lists I’m on and decided to join one for lace knitters. As usual when I join a group, I go in and read some of the past messages to get a feel for what’s going on. Right away I found a reference to a video podcast I’d forgotten about called Lets Knit2gether. I watched the episode on Stitches East which included a great interview with the Jane Sowerby, author of the Victorian Lace Today book I posted about recently. Nice thing about video is you can see the person speaking and in this case a portion of the fashion show featuring Jane’s shawls. A fast internet connection is demanded however.

Meanwhile I’ve been knitting on my SIL socks. I’m already up to the heel turns on both of them. Just shows you that my hands can work on plain socks on autopilot while my brain does other things! The yarn is Fortissima Socka Colori in a bright rainbow colourway. The colour repeats are very short (1 – 1.5”) and they pool just a little with a nice effect. This gives me ideas for further dye-painting my own yarn colours.

I also finally received my winter issue of Knitter’s magazine. I was beginning to think it had gone the way of the fall issues, aka lost in space. I had to email and ask for a replacement for that one, but I got it very quickly after that. This issue is a bit better than the last one, being on colour techniques, but there’s still not much in there that I would knit as is. I haven’t read all of it yet. I’m saving it for tomorrow morning with my tea. That’s before I get my arse in gear to vacuum the main floor. My Spectrum dye and surface design study group are coming over on Saturday so I have to make the joint a bit more presentable. Friday is reserved for vacuuming the basement where the dye studio is. It’s carpeted in kitty litter that the Old Ladies tracked all over. Kind of crunchy under the feet. Yuck. We’re going to be dyeing merino sliver in rainbow colours for our Year of Felting Exploration using Lanaset/Telana dyes. That reminds me. I have to update the instruction sheet and print out copies for all. Plus make a big pot of soup for the potluck lunch. Maybe I’ll use some of the leeks that are still in the garden. If they’re still edible that is.

So ’splain to me why my hairdresser cuts off all the dark hair and leaves the grey? It’s happening more and more every time I go in. I didn’t notice how she did it, but the results are increasingly obvious. Sheesh. You’d think I was somebody’s granny or something. Oh yeah. I am.