Hump Day for most folks means the work week is half over. Even though I haven’t worked outside the home in decades I have to admit that Wednesday is a reminder that the weekend is on the way. As a spinner and fiber enthusiast it reminds me of some yummy fiber in my stash. Namely, camel down!
This stuff is amazingly soft and fluffy. It can be spun from a clump or lightly carded on cotton carders and made into punis or rolags for spinning like cotton. I have enough of it, and a bit of darker fiber as well, that would spin up into fine lace weight yarn for a small shawl or cowl.
It is a super gorgeous day here today. It’s in the mid 70’s, sunny with a light breeze and no humidity to speak of. We have the house open again and are enjoying the peace and quiet of our hermitage. Brad once made the comment that the two of us live out here like a couple of hermits so I took to referring to our property as the hermitage.
We are both still fighting allergies, but feeling better. I ventured out for take-away from C.J.’s Coffee Cafe. Tuna Salad Plate for me and Taco Salad for Brad. I’ve got an appointment with my pulmonologist this week for a regular checkup and I’ll fill him in on the medications I was prescribed by my dermatologist and our family doc.
I decided that it wouldn’t hurt to get back to a daily dose of Young Living Ningxia Red, having stocked up on it earlier in the year. I poured 8 oz of it into a shaker glass and added a scoop of Field of Greens and blended it together well. Oh. My. Goodness. I’ve got a bit of an antioxidant buzz going on right now and I’m beginning to feel a bit better compared to the past few days.
I need to lose a lot of weight and it occurred to me that if I started cutting my food portions in half that I could make some progress. I grew up being expected to ‘clean my plate’ as a child and that has stayed with me into adulthood. I need to remember that less is better, both for my weight and my digestion. Over-eating can seriously slow down digestion and at my age I don’t need any more health problems. So, I divided my tuna salad plate lunch in half and put the rest of it in the fridge for later, including half of the huge wheat roll that comes with it. Half was plenty! I’m satisfied and don’t feel bloated. Progress!
I’ve had some more thoughts on the sweater I want to knit and I remember coming across a pattern for an afghan that utilizes several different skeins of yarn in similar colorways. It calls for holding two strands to knit with, then dropping one strand and replacing it with a strand from a different yarn, continuing on in that fashion with one after another different yarns in combination with a previous yarn for a gradual change of color. I like the idea of trying that and being able to use up some of my stash of different skeins of fingering yarn without ending up with a stripy effect in my sweater. So, the cogs continue to turn and I need to take time for a few more gauge swatches and keep track of everything in One Note so I don’t forget these things that pop into my head.
We’ve been hearing an odd sound lately and trying to identify it. It’s obviously coming from outdoors and almost sounds like an animal moaning intermittently, but not quite. It sounds more like a mechanical noise to me. Then, Brad had a brainstorm and said he thought it might be a drone. I think he may be right. It’s possible that someone out in our neck of the woods has a new toy and that is what we are hearing, not that I mind as long as it’s above the tree level. At least that would make sense of the sounds we are hearing.
I’m well into “Lethal Agent” by Kyle Mills and enjoying another Mitch Rapp adventure. One of my favorite quotes from one of the earlier characters, Stan Hurley, popped up in this book. “It’s not how you play the game, it’s whether your opponent ends up dismembered in the woods.” Yeah, that’s exactly what I’d expect a Stan Hurley CIA spook to come up with. Dark humor to say the least.
Another humorous quote, this one from Mitch, acknowledges that the phrase “high risk, low return” is a front runner for an engraving on his tombstone right behind “Do you think they can stitch that up?” and “Does anyone else hear ticking?”
Thinking about the camel down fiber has me trying to remember how long it’s been since I sat down at my Kromski spinning wheel. Truth is, I don’t know the answer to that question. In any case, it’s too long. I used to spin a little everyday to help keep my ankle limbered up and I don’t know why I stopped. Maybe just occupied with knitting and other things. I had thought about spinning some yarn for my summer sweater instead of using fingering yarn already in my stash, but I really, really need to do some yarn stash busting. I still need to get back to spinning, but I’m not sure what I want to work on so that just got put on the back burner for a while longer. One thing I need to do is break down my wheel and give it a good cleaning and lubricate it well. It sits out in the bedroom and gets covered in dust but I hate to hide it away in the carry bag. Perhaps a pretty dust cover would be a better alternative…
The rhythmic sounds of the dishwasher running is going to put me to sleep if I sit here much longer. I have some chores I need to do and then I’ll read and work on my knitting this evening. Have a blessed Hump Day evening, ya’ll.
Rural Texas Knitter 