So, it's been well over a month, I don't know where the time goes, but I think everyone must feel that way.

 I have two baskets full of these old magazines, it is so funny to look at the ads. I enjoy some of the patterns in them though.

 This baby sweater set was in one of them. Our grandchildren's cousin is having a baby, the first of that generation in our family so I made this for it although I don't usually crochet with yarn, preferring lace.

Also this doily, which was just for fun.

 David got me this book of sweater patterns for our wedding anniversary, I don't have the yarn to start any of them yet, and don't know when I will have so I have been killing time with knitting dishcloths. Ambrosina will probably be needing some soon.

I also crochet this little hat for another baby gift.

 Obviously for a little girl!

So a couple of weeks ago I basted these three quilts. There are only 4 more in the unquilted top tub. I haven't finished a new top for several months. I guess I'd better get busy.

This one is the first under the needle and it's almost done. I hope to finish it this week.

And there is this new tool, a blending board to blend the colored wool that I showed in the last post. I comb it into roving first and then blend the colors into a rolag. I have never used one before but I am enjoying it. I haven't started spinning yet, both wheels have a spin on them and I haven't had a spare wheel yet, although I did finish this ply:

Not enough for a sweater, but will work for the yoke of one. It is a very soft merino that I bought. I prefer to do my own prep, but this works when I don't have any raw wool.


It turns out David's liver lesions aren't yet a big concern although he has to have periodic ultrasounds.

His heart problems are of more concern, he spent two days in the hospital with chest pains and narrowly avoided a heart attack.

I have started exercising a half an hour a day with a video on YouTube. I am in terrible shape! I keep telling myself I will survive this, I wonder.

I know it's been a long time. Things have been a bit difficult here. However...

 I finished this quilt late last week. It is a crazy quilt made from neckties. Many years ago I had this running joke with a friend. He wore such wild ties I always made jokes about taking them and putting them into a quilt. He died unexpectedly and I took his ties and started the quilt, but never got around to finishing it. I did hand embroidery and was joining the blocks and quilting by hand, but then put it away. When I got it out a couple of years ago I decided I was never going to get it done that way and decided to finish it by machine. Finally got it done and it is going to live on the cedar chest at the foot of my bed.

That is, when the cedar chest gets brought down from the attic. I was going to have it done several weeks ago. I needed Anthony and Phillip to do it because David isn't up to it anymore. Anthony was gone for work that week so I had to wait until the weekend. At four in the morning on the Friday, Ambrosina came into our room and said that Anthony had some sort of a seizure and was in the hospital in Watertown a hundred miles away, he had sepsis and his kidneys and liver were failing. Things were pretty much messed up after that! Because the hospital there is so small all his tests had to be sent away and it took them three days to diagnose, they put him on antibiotics and he started slowly improving. They finally found that he had Legionaires Disease. They had never had treated it in that hospital (he became moderately famous). He is better and back to work, but still not very strong, so I am still waiting on the cedar chest.

While that was going on, David had a routine colonoscopy and they found some spots that needed a CT scan. On the CT scan they found two lesions on his liver. While Anthony was in the hospital David had to have an MRI, back home in Sioux Falls so I was naturally on my own up in Watertown with Anthony (nothing new). The MRI showed the lesions pre-cancer, so next week he has an appointment with the oncologist. It's been a seriously difficult couple of weeks, and there are other things going on that are not being talked about.

However, there are some very bright other things going on. It is wonderful to have reliable transportation!

This is the back of the tie quilt.

So, I've been spending a lot of time in my dye kitchen. These are some of the colors I got from food colors, on raw wool. I used Wilton's gel. Now food coloring isn't the best to use, acid dyes are much better, but there is no source locally and I have to order online, and I never have the money for that. I did discover that on raw wool Violet, Royal Blue and Sky Blue get about the same results. It's not solid colors, they tend to 'break', that is, separate. Combing blends them some, and the results will be pretty. Delphinium Blue and Teal look pretty similar. Copper and red are are also similar, but a little different. I am not impressed with the lemon yellow, but the color might improve with combing. Pink is hot pink. Orange and Creamy Peach are about the same colors.

On yarn these colors would probably be different, but I feel the difference would be very subtle. Now when I can afford the acid dyes it will be interesting to see what I get on the raw wool, but I don't know when that will be.

I decided not to start a new project but am working on UFO's, big sigh.

I am on my last and 24th Broiche Scarf in my knitting. I can't wait to do something else!

So this is my newest spin. I will be on this one a long time since I am spinning it lace weight and then plying it. This is the Corriedale roving I bought and dyed.

Two pounds of it because I tend to get carried away, I also need enough for a sweater and the pattern I have in mind is a tunic. Shown here with Waddles. I think that my camera is about done for because the quality of the pictures are very bad. I don't have a phone to take pictures with. I know that I am an oddity.

These are some of the colors of wool that I have been dyeing with food coloring. It is not the best thing to use but my funds are limited and I don't have a lot of acid dyes which would be best. It's fun anyway and I am enjoying it, so I won't complain.

I finally go the hang of dizzing last night! I got the entire combs worth in one long strip! I shouldn't be so proud of myself, but I had that great feeling one get when everything clicks.

I finished this quilt, I am sorry the pictures aren't better. It was so hot and humid when I took the picture that I didn't realize the camera lens was steaming over, and all I wanted to do was get back inside. The heat index was 105 and the humidity was 97% that day. Ambrosina wanted the quilt because it is mostly blue and white, her favorite so I won't bother taking another picture of it.

Say good-bye to poor old Doris. We got blue book value out of her which I say is pretty good considering what bad shape she is in, and we were completely honest about that.

And say hello to our new-to-us 2003 Chevy Trailblazer, who has no name yet. Leon's parents have given her to us to use until we can afford car payments, and we are saving the money we got from Doris for a down payment. We were going to have to get tires for Doris this month and it wasn't really worth spending the money on her.

It's been a pretty good week. I have a doctor's appointment about my knee next week and hopefully they will decide that it's bad enough to replace now. The pain certainly feels like it! I might as well eat a piece of candy instead of the Tylenol I have been taking for all the good it does me, but I shouldn't complain about that either.

So now it's time for me to go check my dyepot, it's green today!

It's not that I am not keeping busy, in fact, sometimes my head is on the pillow before I realize I haven't been online all day, and I am too tired to do it then.

These 3 bags of wool came from a new friend, Bonnie, via an old friend Theresa, (NOT my ex-sister-in-law). Bonnie decided she couldn't use it so she passed it on to me. She had washed it, but I don't think her water was hot enough to melt the lanolin and the wool is very sticky. Also she felted some of it, something that is easy enough to do for a first time wool washer. I am giving it another really hot wash and thankfully some of the stickiness is going away. I tried combing some of it before I washed it and it just didn't work.

So here it is being washed and dried. It's taking quite a while to dry because it is very dense and I've noticed that it is also really white. It's going to be lovely.

Combing wool is new to me anyway, I have always carded wool before, but I want to spin worsted lace weight and combing it has to be!

Lashed onto the stationary comb. This comb is just in a bracket on the table. I could comb with both hands and it might be faster, but I think it would also be more tiring.

First pass.
Combed back onto the stationary comb and ready to be dizzed off. I don't know where that word comes from, I just know that is the term they use.

 Dizzing, it's not as easy as they make it look on the videos on YouTube!

The first roving, it's coming off in short strips right now, but I've only done it 3 times so far and I will get better.

I love it!

 As I work I am sorting through and carding anything I don't want to use on the combs. It is pretty time consuming, but I will get faster as I get more experience. In spinning, like weaving, most of the work is done before sitting down at the wheel or loom, and preparation is almost everything. It's a good thing I enjoy it and am not in a hurry!

So this afternoon we are all going out to one of the state parks that is near, Pallisades. The kids are going to fish and we are going to have a cookout. Let us hope that the threatened t-storms hold off until after we eat.

So... I guess isn't a lot going on lately. This is the first day of the boys summer vacation and they seem pretty grumpy today. I hope that doesn't mean we are going to have a grumpy summer!

I have had two center pull winders break on me in the last year. The cheap things from Michael's just don't last. I looked on line and found this and I love it. It is so smooth and quiet and if it breaks it can be fixed.  It cost ten dollars less than two of the ones which broke and takes less time too. It's got a lot bigger footprint but well worth the space it took up. This is the first part of the first ply of the roving I dyed last. I really like it as a single but I over-twisted for plying so I will keep going with that.

The green is not plied yet. I have been waiting for the weather to warm up so I can take the wheel out under the back porch and spend an afternoon doing it while I watch the wildlife (birds, squirrels, rabbits, butterflies, neighbors kids and our boys). The old ball winder made such a mess of the first ball and broke before I had finished the second, that it is not going to be too easy to ply. Oh well, it will keep me interested.

I finished quilting the center blocks of my Dear Jane and got a good start on the border this morning before I ran out of steam. I hope to finish it this week.

 I got this book at Joann's a couple of months ago, but have been to busy with the hat and scarf sets that I need to get done before fall. The patterns are beautiful and I just couldn't resist swatching one. Tricky though. I started doing one whole pattern but decided I had to break it down into units and working them until I thoroughly understand exactly what I am doing.

 This is not the best yarn for it but it will do for learning. It doesn't really have good stitch definition. It is an acrylic yarn made for machine knitting, but it will do to learn the technique and it won't waste my beautiful wool yarns while I learn. As you can see I have a long way to go, it is fun and I am enjoying it.

I did finish pinning the last of the Drunkard's path units, which is why I have some time to work on the non-scarf and hat knitting. I have only seven sets of those to finish before fall so I am in a good place with those although I am getting a little tired of them. I sent four sets of the finished sets to Matthew and his little family

I have to say I think that my two grandsons are adorable!

The rest of the day will be spent in cleaning, somehow things have gotten ahead of me again, well, I do know why, of course. Cleaning is so uninspiring, but I have to do it sometime although I would postpone it if the weather would warm up so I could sit and spin outside. But then, I would still have the mess, I would feel guilty for not cleaning and maybe I wouldn't enjoy my spinning as much. I had just better get it over with this afternoon, sigh.

Most days I can sew a little and spin a little, but not much else. I have been having some pretty bad back pain so 'I haven't accomplished a whole lot. I have been getting a lot of  'since you are 65' type of mail which is annoying, I won't be that age until August, although I will only admit to 29, and only if I am pressed. What is extremely annoying is when they put it on a postcard and announce it to the whole world. Just one of my pet peeves.

So anyway, David is working on my countertop in the laundry room so I will have a surface to dye on. He will probably pile it high with his crap, he never puts anything away. I am beginning to sound disgruntled, gotta work on that glass half full attitude. Back pain seems to cause bad moods.

 The pictures make it look darker than it actually is. The tiles are odds and ends we bought a long time ago and this is the last of them. It is going to be prettier than it seems right now and I will enjoy having it once I get David's stuff put away. We will have a coffee maker on it and and electric kettle. Maybe in time a small microwave. We will have to see about that.

This is another little job I am doing. Pinning all the rest of my Drunkard's Path pieces I have cut out. Once I am through with these it will be the last of the solid colored fabrics I have and everything else will be prints which I really prefer. Might as well get some odds and ends worked through while I am off my feet. A little boring but I can always turn the TV on while I am doing it.

The last few days the weather has been joyous, I start to feel better about most things when the sun is warm.

This is my beautiful hand-dyed roving being prepped to spin. I can't wait to start but I have to, I have a spin on Sweetheart that has to be finished first, although that is coming along fine too. When I can spin that is.

It looks far more orange than it actually is, the orange is all on the outside of the balls. I should get some lovely barber poling when it is plied. Can't wait!

And this is the first ply of the current spin balled up and ready to go when I finish the other ply that is on the bobbin right now, that bobbin is almost half done so it is coming along pretty fast. When it is done then I will bring Big Girl upstairs to ply. She has a huge bobbin and can take the whole skein without trouble. The color gradations done show really well in the ball, but the colors are lovely and will show better in the skein. I am trying for a fingering weight.

So that is what I have been up to the last couple of weeks. Right now I am going to go take a hot shower. The hot water on my back feels so good and gives me a little relief. I am just glad to be able to do the little I can.

I had a very busy morning and now I am just enjoying having my feet up. I got three quilt tops basted, yippie! I have done up to five in a day but it is just too exhausting. Now that I have a lot of my tops quilted I don't need to do as many at once. I still have a tub of tops that need quilting but that's a lot better than the three or four tubs of them that I have had in the past. The goal is to quilt more tops than I am making, maybe I will get there.

Anyway these are the three I did today.

 Dear Jane (surprise, surprise!)

 Al Beasley's Ties, I was going to hand quilt this one, but that's never going to happen. There is a lot of hand embroidery on this one, but I don't do that anymore either. This is a very old UFO and I have been trying to figure out how old and I would say 30 plus years, maybe more because I just can't remember when I started it.

This one has no name, it's a "bar" quilt. I made some bias pieced binding for another quilt and made way too much, I tend to get carried away and it was so much fun. The blue fabric was on a roll, about 50 yards but only about six inches wide. I still have some of it. This quilt does not lie flat, but I am going to just do the best that I can and call it good. I'll be able to do some creative quilting on this one!

So that sums up my morning and I am so glad to be able to relax with my knitting. Tomorrow I have to get the first of the hat and scarf sets wrapped up to be mailed as presents to one of my little families out in Washington. They won't be able to use them until next fall, but we also have Lego sets to send them. They will be mailed on Friday and I want them to be ready for David to take when he goes to do the payday business.

But for now, I intend to have a second cup of coffee. Rare for me but such a treat, and I feel I have earned it!