Fiber Follies

I came home Saturday to a carton sat on the door-step! It’s another fabulous gift from my SP. Here, have a look:

Whoops! Sorry! I’ll right it. Now, please, have a look. She always makes things so beautiful. I love a gift, and Lady Frigg, aka Dame-Spoils-A-Lot, aka… I’m not going to spill yet. When the round is over I might. Anyway, the packages have been remarkably pretty. And, of course, there’s a note. I was good and didn’t rip into the package until I’d read my way through. She’s always worth a read. Tempting, isn’t it? You’d think there would be some tasty confection inside. If the carton weren’t so light I’d have sussed a supply of salt-water taffy. Of course, its contents are much nicer than candy! Just admire the colours. I know everything looks lovely here but honestly, the pictures don’t do it all justice. And only I can feel and fondle and spin it all! See, the braids to either side? The lovely braided greens and salmon are merino. The gorgeous greens are BFL. I am quite enamoured of the braids. I’ve had a blast trying to figure just how I can spin them to best effect. I think I’ll give up trying to figure it out and just start spinning.

And you see, she’s focussed on my favourite colours, and added some to give gorgeous blends. Oh, and that nice shiny stuff, the “Italian Ice”? That’s tussah silk. I have a special place in my heart for this! I fancy a rather lovely cloud of a scarf or cowl… Oh, yes. Here are the sources of all this loveliness. Go get your own.

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This is Aslan. He’s generally a peaceful cat. His favourite activities are sleeping, eating, doing kitty crack, and snuggling. Aslan is also a fastidious fellow. As he finishes off his meals, he wipes up, all around his dish. If he smells something unpleasant he attempts to wipe up the offending area. I have a fondness for TGIFriday’s Spinach & Artichoke dip, bought frozen at the market. I nuke it and enjoy the garlicky mess as the cats jostle to be first to share it with me. But they must wait! Little samples only until I’m finished, then I’ll place the tray on the floor so they can clean it out. One time I set it right in front of Aslan. He sniffed it, frowned (yes he does too frown), walked to the other side, sniffed again with a pained expression, then proceeded to wipe up the offending area.

Anyway. The boys-Aslan and his brother Tuathal, were in the office. There’s a great sliding door there, where they sit much of the day watching whatever ventures by. I placed a little rug there so they can be a bit more cushioned from the concrete floor under the office carpet.

Saturday, I was away until late afternoon. Once I’d got into the office I saw the cat-mat halfway across the office floor. Huh. The boys must have had a wild playtime or row while I was gone, I thought. I picked up the mat to place it back by the door. Um. I now realised that Aslan had deliberately moved that mat. Because, on the carpet, just underneath where he had dragged the mat, was a fair-sized pile of…of…I’m feeling squeamish now…of…of…

yurp.

You know, where the last meal was reasonably digested but still kind of grainy. And it was that awful shit-brindle colour, and quite flattened from the mat. Knowing what I would see, yet entirely unable to stop myself, I looked at the underside of the mat. Yes, the yurp-spot’s twin resided there. blerrgh. My fastidious Aslan, heaven forbid there be a mess anywhere. I guess if it’s hid under the mat I’m not supposed to ever know that there had been a mess. “Just pull the rug over it, Mom won’t know!”.

Today Precious Child was here for a bit. She had been highly entertained by my recounting the tale of the hidden yurp. I yanked the mat over to show her where I’d found it, this time uncovering a roly-poly little turd.

I do wish Aslan would extend his fastidiousness to picking up after himself. His little treasure trove could be my undoing.

The three C’s. Is there anything else?

Yes, I disappeared for a while. Sorry. The bligblagbleeping computer became ridiculous. First, Windows stopped performing-I’d get the blue screen thingie with one of those “0×000…” whatevers. Actually, there were four or five whatevers. And they all meant that Windows walked out. Never to return. Along with my files. Most of which, thankfully, I’d saved to the external drive recently. Well, I could work with the Linux desktop, no problem. Until it decided to no longer recognise the modem. Fah! Just getting the modem to work when I first started using the OS was a major undertaking. I undertook the pc to a repair shop with a brilliant, Linux-apt employee, who got everything working just fine. That was last year. This time, I rang the same shop with my new list of problems. Sure, bring it in, they say, we’re backed up but will hurry yours since it’s business and all. I took it in on Saturday, giving instructions to remove the Windows hard drive and save it for me to take to data recovery; and to try to re-configure the modem in the Linux desktop. By late Tuesday aft, I’d not heard a word. So I called. And was told that 1) the Windows hdd was kaput (No kidding, that’s why I asked them to remove it and save it for me to take to data recovery; and 2) that they were just having a conference about me (!) because no one there knew how to work with Linux!. Where was my brilliant guy who knew how to fix it? Gone. Well, can you call him? No. Grrr. Why didn’t they admit it when I first called for help? So nothing had been done. sigh. I instructed them to remove the Windows hdd as originally instructed, replace it with a new, blank, unformatted hdd; and to leave the Linux hdd alone. Wednesday I drove in to pick it up. Only to find that the bad hdd had not been removed, it wasn’t in the box where it was supposed to be, it was still in the pc! There was no new hdd anywhere and by this time I’m raging. I took the thing back once more. The bad hdd was removed right then and there, a new one put in, the bad one handed to me, and all was well except I still didn’t have a functioning pc. I did find that my Linux OS had mysteriously disappeared, though the drive was still in place. I am beyond thankful that I use the external hdd so much. Few files were lost. I was able to instal Windows and to get the internets working. So, after more than two weeks of doing most of the work myself, I have half of my OSs but that half I did all by myself. And I must find someone who knows how to work with the Linux desktops.

Griping over.

I had the great delight of reporting my now treasured coffee bean grinder sent me by one wonderful SP. I couldn’t wait to buy whole uninterfered with beans to grind. As the kitties finished their dinners one evening, I put the grinder onto the counter, plugged it in, and poured in a measure of beans. Then pressed the switch. Immediately the air was fur! My cats went airborn, flying in every direction to get away from that new noise. It was some time before I could catch my breath from the laughing. For a few days I’d press the switch when they’d start to get into things they had no business being in. It was great until they’d run just seeing me reaching toward the switch. I do love grinding the coffee as I use it. What a brilliant gift.

Now there’s another giftie from SP! Lookee here.

Of course Risky has to get involved. I believe she thinks everything is hers. She did read out the name on the card (mine of course), but that didn’t stop her from helping me to unwrap it. She’s such a predictable sort.

Read the card, and admire the gift! It’s a braid of merino (”comfort spinning” as the note states), each colour its own and so striking braided with the others. I’m all agog and hurrying to clear a bobbin so I can play with it. Along with that lovely braid, is a very nice, very slinky, very sexy ball of cashmere and tussah silk. Let me say that again: Cashmere. Silk. Cashmere…Oh my, it’s nice to fondle. That, of course, will be spun for something very special. For me. I ain’t giving away whatever I make from it! See the pale blue? That’s ingeo. I’ve been keen to try it-it looks like silk, and is slippy like silk. I’m thinking it’ll be a nice laceweight to make a panel in a lace project, along with the soft yellow silk with pastels I’m spinning now. I’ll just have to sit down and draw it out. I am in fiber heaven right now. The best thing about this? I declared myself on a fiber diet. No purchases until all of the stash fits into one single basket. So my drive to acquire fiber is assuaged by the lovely gifts sent me by me most excellent SP.

I kind of think I know who my SP is, but whenever I’m dead certain of something I’m absolutely wrong. So I am not saying anything. Yet. Meanwhile, it’s fun trying to figure it out. And really, right now the fun is in getting the chance to spin the goodies. And I can sit with a fresh cuppa whenever I want. Thanks, Dame-Spoils-A-Lot, aka, Lady Frigg! You are the best!