07.24.08
A Little Catching Up
One of the first things on my mind as I awoke this morning was to remember to take a picture of my very first whole fleece acquisition from my trip to the IoM. So before I forgot “again,” I ran out to the backyard and snapped a quick pic. Ah, isn’t she a beauty? LOL I know, I’m so overly sentimental, but there are just so many things in life I want to remember, heheh. Anyway, these fleece (I was able to acquire two whole fleeces) have been sitting in a tightly sealed plastic bag since the end of May for several reasons. One reason was that I wanted to make sure that any bugs like ticks, if any, died before exposing the fleece. I’m an amateur at this, but my reasoning was that ticks need a warm body with lots of blood to live off of, and without it, they would die. I figured a couple weeks in the hold would be good. Another reason I’ve held off is that I didn’t want to wash the fleece in my bathtub or sink or washer because I was concerned that I might clog up my drains. And yet another reason is that life has been distracting me so much so that I’ve had to put off playing with this fleece until now. So my first move has been to purchase a washing basin from the hardware store. I figured I could wash it in the backyard like a dog. The second move was to remove the outer plastic since I figured I should let it breath a bit. It was originally sealed very tightly in another plastic bag with mailing tape. I didn’t realize how secure it was sealed until the other day when I decided to let the fleece breathe. The first thing I got as I punctured the bag was a big whiff of the Isle of Man as the fragrance plumed out. Well, okay, it was likely really a big whiff of the sheep, but I liked to think I took a little IoM scent back, heheheh.
Last Monday, I started to see a window of time that looked like it would be good to start working on my fleece. Brian and I were gonna head out to Stick and Stone Fiber to check out their spinning wheels. I figured I wanted a real spinning wheel for these fleece rather than just my little hand spindle. What we found was that Stick and Stone Fiber is no longer in business, ack! And unfortunately, there doesn’t appear to be any other local stores that sell spinning wheels. Gee, what else can’t I find here in huge Los Angeles? No traditionally smoked kippers, and now no spinning wheels. . . Grrrr. And I always thought we could find anything here in this big ‘ole city. I suppose I might be able to find a used wheel somewhere here, but I don’t think I’d want used kippers, ha ha ha! Anyway,. . . I found a place in Redondo Beach where the woman works out of her home, but when I called, she wasn’t in. I left my number and was told she would call me the next day (that was Monday), but alas today, Thursday, I still haven’t heard from her. . . Hmmm. Makes me not feel too confident about doing business with her. Okay, but no matter, my next step is to find some carders. I was told that I should expect to pay about $50 to $100 for a pair of carders. But honestly, when I look at those carders, they look like dog brushes to me. So I checked online regarding those brushes and found that some people do used dog brushes for carding wool, oye! So today, I think I’m gonna head down to the pet store and check out the types of dog brushes they have and their prices. I’m hoping I won’t have to spend more than $50 of a pair of dog brushes. Now wouldn’t that be nice. . .
Okay, so enough of my fleece talk. I’m still working on more knitting and am learning how to adjust my patterns a bit. I may post on that another time. I’ve also been reading a book called, In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden as well as trying to go through a book called the Speedwell by Kenneth Poolman. While I am interested in both books and want to know how they both end, I have to admit that they are slow reading for me. And this morning after checking my library status, I find that In This House of Brede is due today and can not be renewed because there is a title hold pending. So I may just return it today and try to recheck it out again next time. So far I’ve only gotten to page 92 out of 376 pages. I’m at the point where Dame Catherine was elected the new Abess. Now the Speedwell has a bunch of interesting tidbits for me, but again this book is moving slowly, too. I’m not so sure why, but I only seem to manage a few pages at a time when life duties take my attention away, and I “forget” for a time to come back to the book, sigh. But I do find that history helps to understand why things are the way they are today. It helps me to understand human nature and to see what Solomon once wrote that, “There is nothing new under the sun.” It is true that things have changed, especially languages and customs, but for the most part, human nature has remained the same. The old “the more things change, the more things stay the same’ axiom.
Aside from that, I’ve also been checking out the news from time to time. Today I read that the minimum wage has gone up to $6.55 an hour. While I can see that might help some employees, I don’t think that it is really keeping up with inflation and sadly the raise is expected to translate into higher prices at the till, anyway. Round and round it goes, where we get off, nobody knows. . . Yesterday I read that the first invitro-fertilized baby will soon turn 30 years old this year. I recall reading how her inception was very controversial at the time. One medical ethics book I read discussed her inception as one of the many medical ethics cases for medical advancements. Do I agree with IVF? Well, I am happy that many couples are able to have children of their own. However, I am disturbed with the fact that the IVF process results in so many unwanted embryos which are often destroyed, or targeted for experimentation, and many still being held in stasis for who knows how long and for what? Sci-fi horror? Sounds like it to me. Well, I could go on with a lot of the news today. After all there’s just so much of it! We are inundated with information today. Sometimes so much so that we are almost paralyzed from making a move and thus rendering us apathetic to so many causes. I’ve been thinking a lot lately while knitting. I think that’s partly why I enjoy it so much. But at the same time, right now I feel like I’m on info overload. Almost frozen with what I want to do next. I don’t want to be apathetic to do good things, to help out people. So I will have to snap out of it soon. Not that I help lots of people! Ha! But every little bit counts. And I want it to count. 
Well, I’m off for lunch, and to find a couple of doggie brushes. . . Hopefully tomorrow I can hit Stitching is an Art. I heard through the grapevine that they’re having a great sale this weekend starting tomorrow at 10AM. Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy! I’m so there! But the sad thing is that Stitches of the Heart closed their store and that’s why the big sale, wah. I hope to find the scoop tomorrow, tho.
Marlakins 
