Fiber Follies

And that’s all I have to say about that.

Bless you, whoever you are, for taking that boy into your heart and home.

Chavez

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Chavez is a 5-year-old male Maine Coon cat. He was returned to Lollypop Farm
because he developed a “trick knee.” His owners thought it was something
contagious and locked him in the basement! Chavez’s knee gives out, and so
he has a funny walk. There is no treatment and he is not in pain – he just won’t jump
up on your counter tops! A true sweetheart, he loves attention and to be
petted. Chavez prefers older kids and adults, and is not too sure about dogs, but
seems to get along with other cats. Come meet this charming man and give him
the home he deserves! (In his picture he looks a little grumpy, but really he’s not!)

**My notes: Although I haven’t met Chavez face-to-face, I’ve admired him in the cattery at Lollypop. He is absolutely gorgeous. Rich colours too! He’s a looooong kitty, so just the right size for cuddling. What a handsome fur-man Chavez is!

Ernie has been featured on the afternoon television newscast today. I wish I’d known before it was on-I’d have loved to see “my” boy on television. I hope this helps him to get the home he deserves. I still want him for myself, though!

I have agreed with a counselor at the local Humane Society to put up an adoptable each week, right here on my blog. Maybe somehow this will help. It breaks my heart to see the innocents who suffer human irresponsibility. I surely cannot bring all of them home. If you look at my links-over there, under “Find Me At:” you’ll find a link labelled “Lollypop Farm”. There are cats, dogs, horses, sheep, small animals, and assorted others awaiting permanent homes.

It’s sad to see so many wonderful cats there. I can’t save them all but maybe one will find a home because I put mention on my blog.

I had to return to the farm as I’d left my one and only decent coat there. Bob sent me home with silk hankies this time so I can have a go at another sort of silk spinning. After my last experience with silk caps, I don’t know about the hankies, but it’s silk and no matter the nonsense I may undergo, I still get beautiful shiny yarn from it. This will be happy spinning. He says next time he’ll give me some throwers waste (?) to play with.

On the spinning, I just finished that gawdawful cotton/lyocell/flax. Well, not finished as in ‘finished it off’, but finished as in ‘there’s enough for the project in mind’. It’s so handsome and so very soft, but spinning it was not fun. It also has seeds in it so I had to pick as I spun. It was very stubborn in my inexperienced hands so I wound up with a ‘beads on a string’ effect, where it’s neatly and finely spun for a bit then there’s a great blurff of cotton then it’s neat again and another blurff. Plying didn’t really even it out, it’s that bad. I tried wet-spinning it too but still came out with interesting uneven-ness. I can set the rest aside indefinitely or compost it. I plyed it with cotton crochet thread and the silk I spun in February for a nice 3-ply that’ll be cool enough for a hot climate child. It’s going to be a great yarn and the best part is that I’m not processing it into the finished project. Precious Child is.

Spring is jumping up all over the place! Daffs going strong, magnolia blooms beginning, chionodoxia in bloom, dicentra popped overnight, and erythronium with its nodding yellow blooms. I really must get images of these. Every spring it’s all new to me.

I just can’t get Ernie off my mind! The Husband thinks he’d be a great shop cat, it’s quiet and safe there and plenty to keep a kitty happy. Except for humans. Ernie’d only have an hour or so people-time each day except for the weekends when the shop is open. So, no way. Either two cats there, Ernie and a playpal, or none.

Went back to Humane Society and there’s a note on the cubicle saying that Ernie would be best placed as an only cat. I asked why and was told that he’s a little nervous around other cats. Well, what cat isn’t? One of the volunteers carried him from cage to cage as I watched, getting him nose to nose with the inhabitants. He kept his distance at one, sniffed at another, and jumped when a paw reached out of another! I can’t determine from that if he’s really scared around others or if he’s just unsure because he doesn’t know them yet. It’s probably best for him to be the only cat, I just hope that he goes to a home where someone is around most of the day and night for company. I’d hate to bring him here and find that he’s just too unnerved to be around this lively bunch. It makes me really sad, I just don’t know. Part of me says bring Ernie here and work it out as it happens, the other part says wait and someone perfect will come along. I think I’m being selfish.

That such a beautiful boy is still there says something though-people steer away from the imperfect ones. If they’d only give him the chance he needs, they’d find the best-ever companion.

Another prayer for Ernie please.

Yeah, it’s that sort of day. I figure I’ll just get it out of the way for now so I can look for new and different whine material.

First on today’s list: Bulk mails. I’ve already griped about email’s forwarding freaks so now time to fuss about US Postal bulk mailing! I believe the most annoying are those who want to sell pens or stationary or whatever to my business. I don’t have a problem with someone trying to sell me pens or stationary or whatever with my business name on it. I do have problems with those of you who can’t be bothered to get the name right. It’s mis-spelled, or the apostrophe is missing or the comma is missing. It’s even worse when you send a sample. Why would I use a pen emblazoned with my mis-spelled name? I receive samples that are garish, tasteless vivid nightmares of colours too. Save yourselves the effort. It takes effort, real effort, to move your product or service. Even if you corrected the mistakes I still wouldn’t order from you. You only get one try at first impressions. You know what’s the absolute worst? My own bank can’t get my company name right. How’s that for stupid? It’s a major commercial bank, too. And the company name is exceeding simple. There is no reason whatsoever to screw it up.

Let’s not forget high school charity drives. Our local schools seem to think we’re a mint. Yet not one can spell our name correctly!  Since you can’t be bothered to even try, well, I guess I can’t be bothered to do anything but compost your donation requests.

Credit card offers.  How many blasted credit cards does anyone need?  I have plenty.  Many come from the same companies through which I already carry a card-even the same bank!  What’s with that?  Then I get offers to a name I no longer use, haven’t since I re-wed nearly a decade ago.  Write to Direct America, you say?  Try it.  It only works for a few months, then the offers start piling in again.  As long as you’re making payments on your credit cards or merely using them, you’re going to get credit card offers.  And other bulk mail.  Look at your own bank too.  They’re responsible for selling your name to credit card companies and other third parties.  You don’t have a choice.

I was raised to always refer to a person precisely as I was introduced to that person. Thus, “Samuel” will always be “Samuel”, not “Sam” or “Sammy” or anything else. If Samuel chooses to be addressed by another name, then Samuel will tell me that. This seems a peculiarly American habit. Even well-reared educated people scramble to find a cute nick-name. I suffer this too often. I like the name my mum put on me. I hate the nick-name the rest of the world thinks I ought to be called. I won’t correct you anymore. I simply won’t answer.

Aaaahhh. That felt great. Now I can go do something productive.

Of course I still cannot assign a proper category to my posts. I tried the “solutions” found in WordPress forums but they don’t work. sigh. So, we’ll just have to wing it.

I am still knitting! I know I rarely mention it. But so many keen things happen every day that I just forget. And I am horrendously slow anyway. I can start a project and finish it weeks later. Or months. Or years. Okay? That’s why so little knitting mentioned here. I am nearly finished with Oat Couture’s pattern for the Entrelac Purse. It’s a great pattern which perfectly shows off the Noro silk Garden I bought on sale two years ago. I started the purse last winter, made a mistake, and it sat in a closet until six or seven weeks ago when I decided to try and finish off a few WIPs. I unravelled it and began a-fresh. Pictures once finished. It’s very very pretty. I’m also working on a Marsan Watchcap to match a neck-warmer made from handspun that Bob gave me a few years ago. They’ll be nice toasty accessories next winter. I don’t limit my knitting to seasons, as slow as I am it’s just good to get in a row or even a few stitches on the fly and not worry about knitting only with cotton or linen in summer and wools in winter. That makes no sense anyway, I live in a part of the world where heating and air conditioning can keep a body at the same temperature year-round. In my case, shivering. Manalive people here like to keep things cold. Brrr. So, anyway, I am still a knitter.

I am spinning too, but again I am painfully slow. I love spinning. But there is little free time. On one wheel I am working up 50g of bottle-green merino to ply with salmon and light green merino. I may put up a 50 g bobbin of white merino too, since I like knitting a 4 ply wool and think it’d be pretty. On the other wheel I’m suffering through a cotton/lyocell/flax blend. It’s a royal pain but the yarn on the bobbin is so soft! It’s for a baby gift, my neice has produced a darling little man-child and I want to send something made just for him. I’ll make a 3-ply of the cotton/lyocell/flax and cotton and silk. Yes I said silk. Silk is lovely and will give a touch of strength to the yarn, sheen too. Cotton-I cheated-I bought cotton crochet thread to use for that ply. This boy is a Texas hothouse child so no wool heading his way. Precious Child plans to crochet booties for him from the yarn which I hope to finish before he weds and produces progeny of his own.

Then I’ll get back to the Eternal Cardigan Project and spin up whatever I want on the spare wheel. I’m half way through the wools for the ECP so the end does indeed approach.

I send a version of this letter out to all my emailing friends, family and acquaintances, every year. Naturally most of them are not interested in using the internets as anything but a toy. Hi! I love you all, but you really need to pay attention to this! You’re the reason my inboxes get spammed. You’re also the reason your own inboxes get spammed.

Listen up, folks:

The Web is NOT a toy! Its use requires responsibility. Those of you who disagree with any of the following recommendations should NEVER, EVER, use email. I’m sorry if you don’t like this, but will not retract the statement. YOU are the BIGGEST enablers of spammers and malware.

One of you complained last year, then continued to send e-cards and forwarded emails to one of my (then new) email addresses. I have since terminated that email, as it soon started receiving around 400 spam emails daily. Alone. Just that one email address. It wasn’t even used for registration on other sites. I never sent e-cards using that email. I never forwarded anything from or to that email. But it happened. Just from one person’s carelessness. It doesn’t take much.

Aren’t you tired of trying to sift through your email to find legitimate communiqués?

My business email address is the worst hit. I’ve had to change it before because the spam was impossible to control. I don’t want or need to go through that again. When I change my business email I must re-print business cards, I must make the changes on every page of my website, I must change the company letterhead and FAX cover sheets. I must change the contact information to the telephone company, the bank, my attorney, my accountant, the merchant account provider, and the payment gateway provider. For the last two I also pay a fee for the change. Then I need to notify every client of the change. And, of course, I need to notify you! That’s a lot of hours taken away from my schedule, and a deal of wasted materials, and, of course, those awful fees required for the changes. Why would any of you want to cause me such expense and waste of time?

So. Any of you who have never before taken responsibility for your internet use but are interested in doing so:

1. DON’T FORWARD EMAIL! I now have my pc set up to filter out ALL forwarded emails. All of them. Every last one. I don’t have time to look at them. I am still susceptible to spam. The minute one of you picks up a Trojan or worm, it races through your email address book, thus including everyone on that address book in a deluge of sewage! Most internet users do NOT use precautionary software on a regular basis to help prevent this. SO~
1. Keep email addresses someplace else, NOT in your email address book, so that a trip through your address book won’t result in everyone you know being walloped with spam and malware.
2. Wouldn’t it be far nicer to send a simple “Hi! How are you?” than to bombard everyone with rubbish, forwards, and spam? I can’t think of anyone who’d rather receive a forwarded email than a personal note. Also, most forwards making the rounds have been around for years-that’s right, years. Just because it’s new to you doesn’t mean it’s new to everyone. If you receive one of those purported Public Service Announcement emails, please check it against Snopes.com or hoaxbusters.com BEFORE forwarding it to everyone. You’d be surprised at how many of these are pure malarkey. Take the time to verify. Please. Face it, every one of you think that you couldn’t possibly contribute to the problem, when you forward just this one nice story, or just this one funny story, or just this one chain email, or just this one PSA. Most people aren’t interested in learning about email and how spam circulates. But your lack of interest ought to keep you off the web. Analogy? It only takes ONE sexual encounter to result in pregnancy or STDs. So the “Just this One” crowd had best disperse. I don’t want to hear it.
3. I get a lot of this: “I only forward emails that I know the sender of” Huh? So, you’re claiming that you know who forwarded the email to whoever forwarded it to whoever forwarded it to you, on to the originator of the forwarded email. Next you’ll be telling me that this whole chain of email forwarders take only the best care of their computers and are using government spy technology to protect their computers so there’s no way you’ll be compromised. Riiiiight. How many of those people have really taken the time to protect their computers from internet baddies (most likely none). DON’T FORWARD EMAILS!!! Period!!!
4. Don’t give anybody, for any reason, my email address, or that of anybody you love WITHOUT permission. You wouldn’t give out my phone number or address to a complete stranger would you? Then don’t give out my email address.

Maybe there’ll be more to add in future. Remember, a quick hello means a lot more than any forward!

Is one gorgeous boy! I don’t know if I dare to bring another home.

But~

How often have I just wandered down the rows and ONE cat has picked me out of the crowd? That fella just started head-butting the glass of his cubicle, pawing at it and making purr-motions, and kneading, and wouldn’t take his eyes away. When he finally did I walked away. And went back. He had his back to the public viewing area but soon turned, and started the love again.

How often have I walked in to say hello and been put in a visiting room right off with a cat? How often has the cat just clambered all over the place, very happy to be out and among people? Ernie purred the entire time. Nice little rumbly purr too.

He’s been roughed up a bit. His owners had front-declawed him. Then apparently turned him out because he was “too much responsibility”. He’s five years old. It must take quite a while to decide that a pet is “too much responsibility”. He was carried to the Humane Society by a neighbour. I guess the responsibility of taking him to a shelter was too much to bear. He had a broken canine, which remains have been extracted. He’s missing the tip off one ear. His fur is dull and bedraggled and he’s a bit thin.

But oh dear Lord that cat is all love inside. He’ll be fed. He’ll be snuggled whenever a volunteer can snuggle him. Any health problems will be taken care of.

But he’s at the shelter and really needs a home where he can just love his humans to bits. That’s the sort of kitty Ernie is.

It might not be fair to bring him here. The cats already living here have suffered through two companion deaths and one new addition recently. I’m not sure that the upheaval would be good for them, or for Ernie.

He’s still a love.

Okay. I work for a living. I work long hours and try very hard to get by. Too often the business limps along only just covering expenses. I love what I do so intend to keep it up as long as I can.

Enter telemarketers and people who cannot dial the correct number. I became so tired of telemarketers constantly interrupting work that I recorded a message stating that “all calls are screened”. It’s the only way to get work done! Sometimes, however, I pick up if I’m near the phone. That’s when the hamhands who can’t dial come in.

The latest came from a woman looking for a religious shop. Fine. It’s only the umpteenth call I’ve had from someone looking for a someone at that same shop. Why do they keep ringing me? So I asked this one. She was rather snarky about the whole thing, uncaring that she had interrupted my work. I explained that I needed to know where she got this number, she responded “Yellowbook”. Could she read the number listed in Yellowbook? She starts in on some silliness and I repeated my request impatiently. At that point she reared up to snarl as if I had caused the current economic downturn just to cause her the greatest possible discomfort! Excuse me, but who failed dialling 101? I apologised a few times for my own snarkiness, explaining that this constant mis-dialling is an ongoing problem. Did she apologise for interrupting my work day? No. Did she apologise for mis-dialling? Of course not. Did she even graciously accept my apologies? Don’t make me laugh. Well, arrogant female who cannot dial a correct number, I have your mobile phone number. Just screw up one more time. You’re nastier than me and that’s saying something. And, you know, people make mistakes. But when you’re caught please don’t put on the “holier-than-thou” garment. It doesn’t fit you.

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I am returned safely from my very first fair experience. I have avoided exhibiting all along. The possibility of breaking any of my inventory frightens me. But I gave in and arranged to exhibit at a fair a few hours’ drive from here.

So. I took my inventory on the road two weeks back. It was an altogether harrowing job to pack all the fragile old things. I spent two entire work days just packing the van! Once it was nearly packed and I was dis-satisfied so unloaded it and started over. I could have rolled the van and nothing would be out of order, it was so nicely done. But. That took a LONG TIME. Oh, and it took two days before that to pack it all. I printed out lists of what each bin contained and taped it to the lid. It was an excellent idea, which made Precious Child’s job easier later on.

It was a long trip through most of a night to that antiques fair but having Precious Child along as company and set designer made it bearable. She’s fantastic company and most capable when it comes to making things look right.

It took a good part of Friday to set up. I had no idea where to begin so simply launched into a haphazard attempt to put up the track lights. A porter came along, looked at my lights, took them down and put them back up properly. He even took the time to adjust the angles so the exhibit was beautifully lit.

We met our neighbouring dealers right off, with quick introductions and understanding nods at the work we faced.

Friday evening we joined a few other dealers at the hotel restaurant for a pleasant dinner, then dropped into a good night’s sleep.

Saturday was a banner day! Never in the lifetime of my company had I enjoyed such sales in so few hours. Nearly all sales were to the trade, which is fine with me. I was delighted that such august names had become clients. Saturday night, of course, was a chance to “round table” with some of the trade’s big names-who turned out to be fun-loving as well as intellectual. I believe the restaurant’s staff were intimidated by a table of ten antiques dealers, some a bit raucous.

No sales on Sunday although I completed some trade deals. It was hard to break down, the porters were constantly underfoot and overhead, making me feel rushed and very nervous. By the time we were finished and packed it was past nine-and with six hours’ drive looming.

I didn’t blaze any trails but made expenses with a wee bit left over, came home with new acquaintances, learned how to exhibit at a fair, and enjoyed the hard work and the fun. Precious Child is eager to repeat the performance. She kept her cash box key so I guess that means I can rely on her next fair.

I was happy to read an account of the fair in Antiques and the Arts. Its account of the fair started off with a picture from my inventory!

These images show how we began the fair. Precious Child’s arrangements were neat, nice, well thought out, and made verything lead from itself to the next thing and on and on so the eye was drawn in. No one simply glanced then walked away.

I have started to plan out how to go about the October fair. The kit is packed with everything we needed and a few things we could have used. I was glad to have taken a dedicated kit bin, a few other dealers needed supplies that only I had. I was happy to share. It gave a chance to get acquainted with these wonderful people. Most of them have been in the trade and on the show circuit for many, many years, and proved invaluable to me at this first attempt to make my shop mobile. Thank you to every last one!

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Oh dear.  WordPress has changed itself and now I can’t categorise my posts anymore!  I apologise for this.  IF there’s a fix I haven’t found it yet (yes, I’m looking).  No I don’t want this to be categorised as “knitting”.  Very very sorry.